Never Man | 


So Spake 


|) HOWARD B.GROSE | (am 











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“NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 





HOWARD B. GROSE, D.D. 


BY HOWARD B. GROSE, D.D. 


EDITOR OF Missions 





ALIENS OR AMERICANS? 
THE INCOMING MILLIONS 
ADVANCE IN THE ANTILLES 
HEROES OF HOME MISSIONS 


And they said unto them, Why have 
ye not brought him? The officers 
answered, Never Man so Spake. 


Joun 7:45, 46. 


“NEVER MAN SO 






a san OF F Hii a 
SPAKE” _gis#hitin, 
Studies in the Teachings of Je Dh AW ge Quilaoe 
g S 
“O¢ogicat gees 


BY 


HOWARD B. GROSE 


Ovdénore &AaAnGEv ovTwS AVS Panos 
Joun 7:46, 





NEW QB york 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1924, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


“NEVER MAN SO SPAKE’ 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


To 
GEORGE EDWIN HORR 


SCHOLAR, TEACHER, FRIEND 


We place Thy sacred name upon our brows; 
Our cycles from Thy natal day we score; 

Yet, spite of all our songs and all our vows, 
We thirst and ever thirst to know Thee more. 


For Thou art Mystery and Question still; 
Even when we see Thee lifted as a sign 

Drawing all men unto that hapless hill 
With the resistless power of Love Divine. 


Still Thou art Question—while rings in our ears 
Thine outcry to a world discord beset: 

Have I been with thee all these many years, 
O World—dost thou not know ME even yet? 


—Martha Foote Crow, in “Christ in the Poetry of To-day.” 


FOREWORD 


In the present day search for reality in religion men. 
are turning with ever-increasing interest to the teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ. These interpretative studies are 
in line with this tendency and intended to stimulate it. 
As Professor Glover points out, in “The Jesus of 
History,” it is a fact of enormous weight that wher- 
ever the Christian Church has put upon Jesus Christ a 
higher emphasis—above all where everything has been 
centered in Him—the Church has risen in power, in 
energy, in appeal, in victory. On the other hand, where 
men have minimized Jesus, where Christ is not the liv- 
ing center of everything, the value of the Church has 
declined, its life has waned. And he concludes, ‘One 
of the weaknesses of the Church to-day is—put bluntly 
—that Christians are not making enough of Jesus 
Christ.” 

It is the high privilege of the Christian Church in 
this hour of distracted thought to exalt our Lord to 
His rightful seat of authority as Divine Teacher, sit 
reverently at His feet, and then prove to the world by 
example and precept that it “has been with Jesus and 
learned of Him.” Only so can it regain and retain 
Sway among men as the true “body of Christ,” “the 
church of the living God.” Only so can the reproach 
be removed, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not 
the things which I say?” 

Pe BiG, 
New York City. 


He built no temple, yet the farthest sea 
Can yield no shore that’s barren of His place 
For bended knee. 


He wrote no book, and yet His words and prayer 
Are intimate on many myriad tongues, 
Are counsel everywhere. 


Without an effort to explain the wraith 
Which we call life, He bade men have in God 
Implicit faith. 


The life He lived has never been assailed, 
Nor any precept, as He lived it, yet 
Has ever failed. 


He built no Kingdom, yet a King from youth 
He reigned, is reigning yet; they call His realm 
The Kingdom of the Truth. 


—Therese Lindsay, “The Man Christ.” 


CONTENTS 


Part ONE: The Teacher and His School 


CHAPTER PAGE 
Lyre SCHOOT piel). eA en iy: 

II Tue TEACHER . My ee ee er oa 
III Tuer TEACHING f } : ; p 57 


PART TWO: The Teaching of Jesus 


De CONCERNING GOD a ye ites inh ier eA 7 

II CoNCERNING HIMSELF . : : Ni Oe 
IIt Concerninc THe Hory Spirir .  . 129 
TV CoNcCERNING CHARACTER HG rae AP AU cua Oats 
V CONCERNING SIN. Sheen uN OY 
VI CONCERNING SALVATION MU NR a Ray 
VII CoNCERNING PRAYER . ; A nay ole 3 
VIII Concernine Lire HERE SUM, Dome a BS 


TS CONCERNING Like HEREARTER) (005° 447230 





PART ONE: The Teacher and His School 


CHAPTER ONE 


THE SCHOOL 


Erect in youthful grace and radiant 
With spirit forces, all imparadised 
In a divine compassion, down the slant 
Of these remembering hills He came, the Christ. 


—Katherine Lee Bates. 


Jesus Christ is the universal seminary at which mankind 
is evermore learning. He is the most remarkable pheno- 
menon in human history. He is the Son of Man, the repre- 
sentative and exemplar of humanity—George Dana Board- 
man. 


He is not one among the world’s teachers; He is the Teach- 
er, unique in understanding, supreme in sympathy, and 
unparalleled in power to bless the human soul; and it is 
the comfort of the Christian and the crowning glory of 
Christ’s church that such a One is set forth for the homage 
and adoration of mankind.—/. W. G. Ward. 


Close, indeed, was the companionship of Jesus and His 
disciples. With Him they dwelt, with Him they walked, with 
Him they conversed, with Him they prayed, with Him they 
associated in all that affected their daily life. They were 
like a family, sharing their purse, their food, their joys, 
their sorrows.—Otis Cary. 


He chose Twelve, because He wanted those about Him 
who could enter into His life, who would by their cheerful 
companionship afford some relief from the critical and some- 
times cruel antagonists that would confront Him. The 
pupils had not been long with the Master before they found 
that while He was so human, He was also other than an 
ordinary human teacher.—J. W. G. Ward. 


“NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


PART ONE: The Teacher and His School 


CHAPTER ONE 
THE SCHOOL 


Jesus is the World’s Teacher, unique and ultimate. 
This fact is more widely recognized to-day than ever 
before, in Christian and non-Christian lands alike.* 
However much men may differ about Jesus in other 
respects, or may disregard or disobey His teachings, 
few deny that these teachings are ideal and true. They 
are appealed to by the most diverse groups. Many who 
declare them too ideal and impracticable for common 
daily use, as things are, concede that if they could be 
put into universal practice they would create a new 
social and economic order and transform civilization. 
Many others believe that they ought to have a fairer 
trial before their practicability 1s denied. It is not 
without significance in this regard that a New York 
minister has unveiled in his church, with appropriate 

1 Striking confirmation of this is found in the fact that at the 
Conference of the World’s Student Christian Federation in Peking, 
China, in 1922, the following creed was adopted by the Christian 
and non-Christian students representing nearly all lands: “The con- 
struction of our ideal society is based on the spirit and teaching 
of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we believe in the absolute sacred value 
of the individual, in love as the basis of human fellowship, and in 
mutual service as the means of human progress.” Noteworthy in- 


deed as the expression and action of the leaders of to-morrow in 
Orient and Occident. “5 


14 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


exercises, a bronze tablet bearing the inscription, “We 
believe that business principles should conform to the 
teachings of Christ,” and has urged its adoption by 
the business men of his congregation.” Nor was he 
acting solely on his own initiative. In response to 
a letter sent to prominent professional and business 
men of the country, asking if they thought the teach- 
ings of Jesus would solve the social, industrial and 
political problems of the day, he received many replies 
written with ardor and deep conviction in the affirma- 
tive, and approving the spirit of the inscription. The 
incident is symptomatic of a new and growing appre- 
ciation of the immediate applicafiflgty to present con- 
ditions of the principles and precepts which Jesus 
Christ taught. Inadequately as they have been under- 
stood and interpreted, curiously as they have been 
distorted, poorly as they have been practised, it remains 
true nevertheless that they have been the creative and 
constructive forces in the development of Christian 
civilizations, and have inspired the leaders of thought 
and action in every great movement in human prog- 
ress. Never were they more needed than now. This 
is a time when the followers of Jesus Christ should 
devoutly and devotedly study His teachings. As Dean 
Robinson says in the preface to his recent little book 
which penetrates to the heart of the Sermon on the 
Mount, “that program of splendid unworldliness” : 
“There is only one remedy for the ‘reduced Christian- 
ity’ from which we have been suffering, and that is 
an increase of loyalty to the Person and the principles 
of Christ. In no way is such loyalty of faith and con- 
fidence so likely to be kindled in the heart of our gen- 


2Rev. A. Edgar Keigwin, D.D., Pastor, West End Presbyterian 
Church. 


THE SCHOOL 15 


eration as by a deepened understanding of the unique 
quality of the truths which He uttered when as a 
Teacher, and more than a Teacher, He appeared among 
men.” He says further that “in our search for right 
guidance as to the part which, at the new stage of 
civilization upon which we are entering, our Christian- 
ity ought to take in the reconstruction of the social 
order, we certainly shall not do better than put our- 
selves to school again with those who first listened to 
the lessons that were given to the earliest disciples.” * 

Let us then in imagination “put ourselves to school 
again,” join company with the Twelve who were spe- 
cially chosen “to b€ with Him” (Mark 3:14), and 
envisage as vividly as we may the Teacher and His 
School. Thus from His own lips we may learn the 
lessons of spiritual birth and growth, of true living 
and right relations to God and neighbor ; lessons about 
God and His Son, sin and salvation, faith and love, 
mercy and judgment; lessons as to ideals of character 
and possibilities of their realization, the significance of 
His sacrificial death on the cross, His resurrection 
and ascension. In regard to these infinite issues of life 
and destiny, while it may be of passing interest to 
know what men have thought, it is vital to faith and 
life to know what the Founder of our religion taught. 
That is the supreme object of our quest. 

The School of Jesus was unique. It was as unlike 
the schools of the Rabbis as He was unlike the Rabbis 
themselves. It had no tuition fees, no terms or semes- 
ters, no curriculum or graded classes, no set recita- 
tions or examinations, no diplomas or degrees, no 
buildings or endowment, save that endowment of the 
Divine Spirit which made all other unnecessary, and 


3 “Studies in the Teaching of the Sermon on the Mount,” p. s. 


16 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


no textbooks save the Old Testament Scriptures. Its 
lessons were drawn largely from these Scriptures,* 
which were to the Teacher an unfailing source of sanc- 
tion and support; from Nature, which was to Him an 
open book of illustrations; and from human nature, 
which He read by intuition as well as observation, for 
“He knew what was in man’ (John 2:25), and per- 
ceived the thoughts of men and their motives, whether 
curious, crafty or hostile, before they spake (Mark 
2:8) 127157) (Mattiem2 i265 i22c\1hs ) ake) Opa 
rae a hg 

Its classrooms were mostly in the open: On hillside 
(Matt. 5:1; Mark 3:13) or seashore (Mark 2:13, 
4:1), in cornfield (Matt. 12:1) or along the way 
(Mark 6:56; Luke 9:57); sometimes in homes, as 
with Levi and a mixed company at dinner (Mark 
2:15), with Simon, the discourteous host, who was 
taught a severe lesson (Luke 7: 36-50), and with 
Zacchzeus, to whose hospitable house salvation came 
with the unexpected Guest (Luke 19: 1-10); some- 
times in the synagogues (Mark 6: 2; Luke 6:6) and in 
the Temple’ (John 7: 14-45) 13:20; Luke 2a937), 
where the bitterest malignity of the religious hierarchy 
was met. The nearest it came to having a headquarters 
was in the house in Capernaum which Jesus occupied 
at times (Mark 2:1). It was literally a School of the 
Peripatetics, Even more fittingly than the noted 


4The Old Testament was Jesus’ Bible in the full sense of the 
word. Its language and incident were constantly on His lips. Next 
to nature it was His book of illustrations, the perpetual source from 
which He drew the sanctions and authenticities of His words. The 
Psalms, but especially Isaiah and the other prophets, were His fa- 
vorites. But he had made the whole collection His study, including 
the Law, and in His temptation draws all His weapons, one after 
another, from the Book of Deuteronomy. In Gethsemane and on 
the cross He turns to the Psalms for refuge, and as He dies their 
words are the last upon His lips—-Samuel Dickey, “The Constructive 
Revolution of Jesus,” p. 40. 


THE SCHOOL 17 


school of Aristotle it might have taken that name, as 
a writer suggests, who says it is not without interest 
to notice that the Greek verb from which that name 
is derived is used to denote the “walking” of Jesus and 
His disciples (John 6: 66, 7:1). Wherever Jesus was, 
there the School was also. As “He went on his way 
through the cities and villages, teaching’ (Luke 
13:22), the select group of pupils went with Him, re- 
ceiving instruction and experience together. He was 
“the way, the truth, and the life’ which He taught 
(John 14:6). His precepts were incomparable but 
His example was far greater. He left no written 
word, yet His spoken words sank so ineradicably into 
the minds and memories of the pupils that these words 
were passed on from one to another, and later put into 
writing and preserved for all future generations by 
the inspired Evangelists, in confirmation of His say- 
ing, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 
shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). Thus we are 
enabled to share the privilege conferred by Luke on 
“most excellent Theophilus”: “that thou miughtest 
know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast 
been instructed,” (Luke 1:3, 4), or as Moffatt trans- 
lates it, “to let you know the solid truth of what you 
have been taught.”’ 

Coming to the Gospel narratives as to a gallery of 
‘life scenes, we find charming and graphic pictures of 
the School and the free and intimate intercourse of the 
Teacher and His pupils, from the first days in Caper- 
naum to the last in Jerusalem. We behold a company 
of congenial comrades. Someone has said _ that 
throughout His life Jesus had a genius for friendship. 
Doomed as an inevitable part of His self-sacrifice to 
loneliness in the critical experiences and crises of His 


18 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


life, misunderstood and disbelieved in by those nearest 
Him in blood ties (Mark 3:21; John 7:5), He 
longed for companionship, and sought it in the “inner 
circle,” strangely assorted but welded into fellowship 
by His all-pervasive spirit. So we see them walking, 
talking, arguing, working, living together in the frank- 
ness and familiarity of friendship. Let us look at one 
or two of the living pictures. 

Take that incident which brings to Jesus His very 
first followers. John’s Gospel sketches it for us. John 
the Baptist for the second time sees his cousin, Jesus 
of Nazareth, whom he has baptized and recognized as 
the Son of God, walking about on Jordan’s bank at 
Bethany. Then to two of his disciples he preaches 
the shortest sermon on record, “Behold the Lamb of 
God!” To a Jew that was a volume in a sentence, 
needing no exposition, and the young men follow 
Jesus, who observes them and asks, “What do you 
want?’ They reply, “Teacher, where are you stay- 
ing?” and He says, “Come and see.’ So they go with 
Him and stay the rest of the day—it was then about 
four in the afternoon (John 1: 35-39; M.).° It was 
a great day for them, and we may count that the 
opening of the School, with Andrew and John as the 
first two pupils—for the Evangelist tells us that An- 
drew was one, and does not name himself but leaves 
that to be inferred. In her poem entitled “That Day,” 
Julia H. Thayer has voiced the feeling of many: 

“That day with Jesus! Who can guess 
All that it meant of blessedness? 


I sigh, ‘Oh, that I had been there 
To hear His words, His voice in prayer; 
5 Where Moffatt’s translation is used, for purposes of comparison 


or to freshen interest in a familiar verse, it is indicated by the M. 
included in the reference if not otherwise specified. 


THE SCHOOL 19 


To see the shining of His face 

And feel His touch of heavenly grace— 
To wear in memory for aye 

The halo-crown for that one day!’” 


Next morning Andrew tells his brother Simon, “‘We 
have found the Messiah,” and brings him to Jesus, who 
looks at him and says, “You are Simon, the son of 
John? Your name is to be Cephas” (meaning Peter 
or rock); thus discerning in him instantly qualities 
as yet latent and endowing him with a new name, one 
destined to play a large part in church history (John 
I: 41-42). So the enrollment begins, with Philip and 
Nathanael added as Jesus starts on His walk to 
Galilee (John 1: 43-51), where in the home environ- 
ment He is to enter upon His ministry of teaching, 
preaching and miracle-working, through which is to 
come the establishment of the Kingdom of heaven on 
earth. How simple and natural the beginning seems; 
yet seen more truly, how singular and superhuman the 
qualities it reveals in the new Leader. 

For a single further example at this point, passing 
by the many other scenes that attract, we pause before 
the one that delineates clearly what many regard as 
the most important session the School ever held, Its 
dramatic dialogue and lesson have furnished a theme 
for study and discussion in all the generations since, 
and men are still answering in one way or another the 
question which the Teacher put that day. 

The scene is laid in the northern district of Czsarea- 
Philippi, dominated by Mt. Hermon’s snow-clad sum- 
mit. As they are “in the way” (Matt. 16:13), touring 
the villages, after a season of prayer alone (Luke 
9:18), the Teacher rejoins the little group, and sud- 
denly startles them with the question that had been 


20 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


agitating the people of Galilee and Judea, “Who do 
men say that I the Son of Man am?’ What a study 
those twelve faces would make, if we could see them 
as the force of the question breaks upon them, and as 
they catch the earnest, expectant expression on the 
Teacher’s countenance. It is the hour of a great con- 
firmation to Him as well as that of a great affirmation 
by Peter. As this conviction has been pressing itself 
more and more deeply upon Him, Jesus wants to 
know how far His own conviction is that also of 
those who know Him best, who have been permitted 
to share His life and read His thoughts and have active 
part in His plans and purposes. 

It is one of the tense and telling moments of human 
history. One after another offers what he has heard 
—some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jere- 
miah, or one of the old prophets risen again. But now 
comes the home thrust that requires for its answer 
not what others are saying but personal conviction, 
“But who do you say I am?” It is Simon Peter the 
‘impulsive whe breaks the deep silence, “You are the 
Christ, the Son of the living God.’”’ And the words 
that spring from the lips of Jesus prove how respon- 
sive His soul is to this utterance. ‘You are a blessed 
man, Simon Bar-Jonah, for it was my Father in 
heaven, not flesh and blood, that revealed this to you” 
(Matt. 16:17; M.). Wecan feel the hearty assent 
of all to Peter’s declaration, for this made them the 
chosen companions of the Messiah who, as they be- 
lieved, was to assume kingly authority and throw off 
the Roman yoke. The intensity of the Teacher’s emo- 
tions can be seen in the unexpected sequel. After 
charging them to tell no one that He is the Christ, 
Jesus proceeds to teach them that “the Son of Man 


THE SCHOOL 21 


had to endure great suffering, to be rejected by the 
elders and the high priests and the scribes, to be killed 
and after three days to rise again,” speaking of this 
freely. While the others are shocked into silence by 
this dashing of their ambitions and hopes for their 
country and themselves, Peter presumes too far on 
his favored position and, “taking” Jesus, exclaims 
reprovingly, “God forbid, Lord, this must not be!’ 
But Jesus turns on him with a reproof whose sharp- 
ness testifies to the strain under which He is laboring: 
“Get behind me, you Satan! You are a hindrance 
to me. Your outlook is not God’s, but man’s!” A 
fall from the heights to the depths! (Matt. 16:23; 
M.). 

Then the Teacher enlarges the class for a wonderful 
lesson. Calling the crowd to join them, He teaches 
them concerning the conditions of discipleship, and 
the true evaluation of the individual soul, whose dig- 
nity and worth no other Teacher ever put so high, set- 
ting it in the balance above the whole world (Matt. 
16: 21-28; M.). Thus we have been witnesses of 
one of the crisis hours of His earthly life, and have 
seen the Teacher turn to His pupils for counsel and sup- 
port. The narratives are full of these rich picture 
materials. 

A recent writer has some ingenious theories con- 
cerning the School, its Teacher and pupils.° He be- 
lieves there are reasons for thinking that Jesus may 
have taught in the Galilean schools before His minis- 
try began, in those “silent years,’ it being customary 
for a teacher to follow his trade. That Jesus was 
addressed as Rabbi would indicate that He wore the 
long, flowing white robes of the Rabbis, since garments 


6 Otis Cary, “The First Christian School.” 


22 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


told occupation, and had He worn the dress of a car- 
penter He would scarcely have been called Teacher. 
The author pictures Jesus as employed in one of the 
elementary schools, with a group of boys from six to 
fifteen years of age seated at His feet. “What a 
Teacher He would be! How His explanations would 
make their study of the Old Testament intensely in- 
teresting and profitable! What helpful thoughts of 
the heavenly Father He would give to those boys; 
what high ideals of the lives that they as children of 
God ought to live! The teaching would not be by 
words alone: their Teacher’s daily life would inspire 
in them the desire, ‘When I am a man I want to be 
like Him.’” Delightful to contemplate, but pure con- 
jecture, there being no proof positive from the nar- 
ratives that Jesus Himself ever went to school, though 
the presumption is strong that He did, and it is com- 
monly assumed as a fact. The schools in Galilee were 
by no means so numerous or carefully looked after as 
those in Judea. The author also tries to make out a 
case for the extreme youthfulness of nearly all the 
Twelve. What it is well to remember is that they 
were nearly all young men, full of the enthusiasm 
and readiness of youth to follow a fearless leader. 
Concerning such practical matters as the manner in 
which the Teacher and His pupils lived, and the 
sources of their support, the records evince little inter- 
est and supply only incidental suggestions. The men- 
tion of a bag which Judas Iscariot carried implies 
a common purse and sharing of whatever lot befell. 
The instructions given to the Twelve when they were 
sent out on their first evangelistic tour make it clear 
that they were to depend for their daily necessities on 
the people, as was customary in that hospitable day and 


THE SCHOOL 23 


land. They were not to take gold or silver or coppers, 
for the workman is worthy of his meat. They were 
however to give before they got. Freely they had 
received miraculous power, freely they should give. 
Matthew presents the more detailed sketch (10: 7-15). 
In the case of the Seventy some further items are in- 
cluded. They too were to go without purse, wallet or 
sandals; to stay at the same house, eating and drink- 
ing what was provided, for the laborer is worthy of 
his hire. Wherever they were received on entering 
into any town, they were to eat what was set before 
them, heal the sick, and declare, “The kingdom of 
God is come nigh unto you” (Luke 10: 1-9). Long 
afterward, on the night of His betrayal, Jesus asked 
the Twelve, “When I sent you without purse, and 
scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, 
Nothing” (Luke 22: 35). 

This throws light upon the School life during the 
“walking” tours in Galilee and Judea, and the occa- 
sional reaches beyond. But there are other suggestions 
which show that the Master gradually gathered about 
Him a company of capable supporters. Thus Luke 
tells us that when Jesus took the Twelve with Him on 
a preaching tour, traveling from one town and village 
to another telling the good news of the Kingdom, He 
was accompanied by certain women who had been 
healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Mag- 
dalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s chancellor, 
and Susanna, and many others ‘who ministered to 
him out of their substance” (Luke 8: 1-3). 

The records show other friends and disciples not 
openly knewn but ready to respond to His call, as in 
the instructions given for the passover preparation, 
“Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, 


24 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


- The Master saith, . . . I will keep the passover at thy 
house” (Matt. 26:18). The further details in Mark 
(12:16) imply a rich man, and previous arrangement. 
After the crucifixion, too, Joseph of Arimathea, a coun- 
cillor, and Nicodemus, who from his first interview by 
night had been a friend—both of them disciples but 
secretly for fear of the Jews—came forward to render 
openly the last service left to them ( Matt. 27:57; Mark 
Thess niukeresr SOR ORN MLO: aos 3O kt 

It is probable also that Matthew and Levi had 
means, and Zacchzus, a later recruit, was reputed a 
rich man. The sons of Zebedee would not be alto- 
gether without resources, and during the sojourns in 
Capernaum might easily have engaged at times in their 
former vocation. That they readily fell back into it 
is shown by the striking incident, after the resurrec- 
tion, when Simon Peter said to his companions, at the 
sea of Tiberias, “I am going to fish,” and they joined 
him, with the amazing results that followed (John 
21: 1-23). Once the pupils had forgotten to bring 
any bread, and had only one loaf with them in the 
boat (Mark 8:14), which led to the lesson on the 
leaven of the Pharisees, and the searching questions 
born of their lack of spiritual apprehension, “Do ye 
not remember? How is it that ye do not understand?” 
(Mark 8:18-21). Still further, we have the many 
accounts of entertainment at feasts and dinners, in 
some of which the Pharisees were conspicuous. There 
could be no material want for a leader of this marvel- 
ous character, whose fame was spread abroad as a 
worker of miraculous and merciful deeds. Nor must 
we forget that they all lived the simple life, whose 
needs were easily supplied. 

It was a nomadic and uncertain life, homeless, as 


THE SCHOOL 25 


the Teacher, in one of the rare revelations of His 
inner feeling, said to the scribe who offered to follow 
Him anywhere, “The foxes have their holes, the wild 
birds have their nests, but the Son of man has nowhere 
to lay his head” (Matt. 8: 19-20; M.). Yet we can- 
not help seeing that it was a blessedly full and happy 
life, with its deep undercurrents of joy. It was too 
crowded with helpful and unselfish service for any- 
thing else. The Teacher was the contagious inspira- 
tion. The pupils were with Him in all sorts of situa- 
tions and experiences, in training for their future 
work, That was the secret of it all—they were with 
Him. And while they never understood Him, 
because of that in Him which the world to this day 
has never fully comprehended, nor ever can, they were 
wise enough to know that they had a Teacher and 
Master such as had never before appeared among 
men. 

Wonderful School, of lecture, discussion, criticism, 
exposition, illustration, loving intercourse and living 
experience, in which the Teacher imparted to His 
pupils not only the principles of holy living and the 
wisdom that is from above, but also His own ideals 
and spirit. He taught the true way of life and the 
pupils walked with Him in it, enjoying the highest 
privilege ever granted to mortal men. He made them 
willing to die for the truth He taught them. “The 
greatest miracle in history,’ says Professor Glover, 
“seems to me the transformation that Jesus effected in 
those men.” The graduates show the character of the 
School. From it Jesus sent out first the Twelve 
(Mark 6:7), endowed with Divine power, to carry 
to the people the glad news of the Kingdom and the 
day of salvation. Then He commissioned the Seventy 


26 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


(Luke 10:1) to make a similar missionary tour and 
thus widen the area of the Kingdom. Besides these 
who constituted a special class, there were the great 
numbers of others who enjoyed the benefits of His 
lessons, which were free to all who had ears to hear, 
without distinction of sex or condition. 

For about three years the Twelve continued their 
special course of instruction and training, and then 
came the tragic close. The final familiar meeting with 
the Teacher was in the upper room in Jerusalem, on 
the occasion of the Last Supper, that sacred Memorial 
in remembrance of Him which is now observed in 
every land (Luke 22: 13-20). “Having loved his own 
, ... hetloved them unto thevend(Johni127 1) waite 
had taught them the gospel of love, and now He gave 
them His new commandment, “That ye love one an- 
other, as I have loved you” (John 13:34). This was 
followed by the farewell address and the intercessory 
prayer that will forever be without a parallel (John 
14 to 18). And when for the last time they had 
sung a hymn together (Matt. 26:30), they went out 
—the Teacher and His pupils, only eleven now—into 
the night. The temporary School was over, but its 
influence had only begun, and that of its Teacher 
“ever widens with the suns.” It has now become the 
spiritual university of the universe, and its students 
are in all continents. 

Because of its Teacher, its teachings, and its schol- 
ars, this School can never be forgotten. Out of it 
came graduates (Matt. 10:2) whose names are among 
the immortals by reason of their personal and intimate 
fellowship with Him who is not only the World’s 
Teacher but its Divine Saviour and Lord. Who can 
estimate the influence exerted by Matthew and John 


THE SCHOOL 27 


through the Gospels which have borne their names 
and the teachings of their Master to the ends of the 
earth, and opened the way of eternal life to multitudes 
throughout the centuries of the Christian era? It was 
to His chosen pupils, too, that after His resurrection 
Jesus committed the continuance of His teaching 
work, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To 
them He gave the Great Commission to “teach all 
nations ... teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world’ 
(Matt. 28: 19-20). 


“We thank Thee, Lord, Thy paths of service lead 
To blazoned heights and down the slopes of need; 
They reach Thy throne, encompass land and sea, 
And He who journeys in them, walks with Thee.” 


Ure 





CHAPTER Two 


THE TEACHER 


Him evermore I behold 

Walking in Galilee, 

Through the cornfield’s waving gold, 
In hamlet or grassy wold, 

By the shores of the beautiful Sea. 
He toucheth the sightless eyes; 
Before Him the demons flee; 

To the dead He sayeth, Arise! 
To the living, Follow Me! 

And that voice still soundeth on 
From the centuries that are gone 
To the centuries that shall be! 


—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 


And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and 
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of 
the Father), full of grace and truth—John’s Gospel, 1: 14. 


The holy of holies of the New Testament is the Gospels, 
because it is here we look directly into the eyes of Jesus.— 
Charles E. Jefferson. 


More striking than anything Jesus said or did is what He 
was. That which He worshipped in the God He trusted, 
He Himself embodied. The Evangelists do not attempt to 
describe what He was like; they let us hear Him and watch 
Him, as He lived in the memories of those who had been 
with Him; and He makes His own impression. The crown- 
ing tribute is that we have no loftier adjective in our vocab- 
ulary than “Christlike.’—Henry Sloane Coffin. 


What is of vital importance is that we should not relax 
our hold upon the fact that our Lord was, and is, far 
more than all it is in the power of our imagination to con- 
ceive. As we gaze upon Him, we still hear the challenge 
that sounded of old: “Who think ye that I the Son of Man 
am?” And we can but spell out in wonder the accents of the 
old reply, “Thou art the Son of the Living God!”—A. W. 
Robinson, 


CHAPTER Two 
THE TEACHER 


Tue Gospels contain no portrait of Jesus. They tell 
us nothing of His face or form. All reputed descrip- 
tions or likenesses are apocryphal and spurious. The 
master painters and sculptors, medieval and modern, 
have lavished their genius in the effort to put on canvas 
or carve in marble their conceptions of the Christ, 
and these have varied with the time and place and 
race of the artists. They have pictured many types, 
from the pale and haggard ascetic and the saintly 
spiritual to the blonde and robust mingler with men; 
from the worn but majestic Christ before Pilate to 
the strong and gracious Master looking on the rich 
young ruler; with the dominant ideal of Christian art, 
that of the Man of Sorrows, in accord with the pro- 
phetic tradition.* We know well however that no simula- 
tion can satisfy our ideal; and the works of art, though 
born of loftiest motives and often wonderful in con- 
ception and execution, only serve to emphasize the 
wisdom of the inspired reticence of the Evangelists. 
But while the Gospels do not give a description of 
the personal appearance of the Teacher, they do give 
glimpses which reveal mood, attitude and action; char- 
acteristic touches of detail and circumstance that help 
to make Him real to us—a living Person. ‘There are 
two allusions to the physical, both connected with the 
1 Readers interested to know what a large place Jesus has held in 


the thought and works of the master artists should consult Farrar’s 
“Life of Christ as Represented in Art.” 
31 


32 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


early years. The first, covering the childhood, com- 
presses much in little in that single verse, “And the 
child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom: and 
the favour of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40). Dr. 
Henry van Dyke says in his poem on “The Nativity”: 


“Could every time-worn heart but see Thee once again 
A happy human child, among the homes of men, 

The age of doubt would pass,—the vision of Thy face 
Would silently restore the childhood of the race.’ 


The second allusion is aie contained in a single sen- 
tence which completes a home picture. We see the 
keenly alert boy of twelve in the Temple, bewildering 
the learned doctors of the law by the intellectual and 
spiritual penetration of His questions and answers; 
followed by the domestic scene between the amazed 
and anxious parents and the preoccupied son, with 
the mother’s rebuking question and the enigmatical 
reply. Then we are told that “He went down along 
with them to Nazareth and was subject unto them.” 
A. T. Robertson translates this, “continued obedient 
unto them,” and Moffatt says more tersely, “did as they 
told him” (Luke 2: 43-51), though this is a paraphrase 
and not a translation of the Greek. And the sequel to 
the story, which is all we have of biography for the 
years from twelve to thirty, is the simple statement, 
“And Jesus increased (kept making progress) in wis- 
dom and in stature and in favour with God and man” 
(Luke 2:52). Note the coupling of wisdom and stat- 
ure, of mental and physical development. All that 
we subsequently learn of the Teacher indicates a sound 
mind in a sound body, held in perfect poise in the one 
perfect life. How we should like to know more about 
those “silent years.” We can picture the common 


THE TEACHER 33 


environment and activities from the history of the 
time, but as for the one life in which our interest centers 
we have conjecture and not knowledge.” We cannot 
go beyond the poet’s words: 


“So through those silent unrecorded years 
The matchless life grew slowly into power, 
Brooding its mystery of hopes and fears 
And moving ever forward toward the hour 
When He who first had served at Nazareth 
Life’s Lord became, obedient unto Death.” ® 


Through the mirror of the narratives we see the 
Teacher, entered now upon His public ministry, at 
the Jordan with John, symbolizing obedience by bap- 
tism and receiving the Father’s recognition as He 
ptayed (Luke 3:21, 22); in the desert, foiling the 
Scripture-quoting Tempter with Scripture quotation 
(Luke 4:14); returning for service “in the power of 
the Spirit into Galilee’ (Luke 4:14); mingling with 
all sorts and conditions of people as the only way to 
reach and redeem them (Mark 2: 15-17); happy with 
the little children clustering around Him and in His 
arms (Mark 10:15, 16); spending His last night be- 
fore crucifixion with “His own,” speaking imperish- 
able words (John 14 to 17); fearlessly facing down 
the hostile band in the Garden (John 18:5) ; standing 
before hesitating and pitiable Pilate in the imperturb- 
able calm of majestic superiority, “every inch a king” 
Clonnmeisaasa7. (Viatt. 27:11): and. on 'Calvaty’s 
cross, dying with forgiveness on His lips (Luke 
33:34). In these and the many other life scenes 


2 For an original and suggestive study of the early home life of 
Jesus, furnishing a needed background for the understanding of 
His public ministry, see Chapter II, ‘“‘The Jesus of History,’ by 
T. R. Glover. 

3 Sarah J. Day, in the poem, “Was Subject Unto Them,” 


34 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


appear the clear outlines of a marked and masterful 
personality. 

From the records we gather also clear impressions 
of His charm of manner and speech (Luke 4: 22) ; the 
swift changes of expression, from tender sympathy and 
compassion to “‘the play of humor and the touch of 
irony,’ from pity to the lightning flashes of rebuke, 
as His emotions were reflected in His countenance. 
His look must have been singularly penetrating, from 
the many allusions which mark it as the prominent trait 
impressed indeliby upon His disciples and biographers. 
Thus, Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath, the 
man with the withered hand before Him and the 
Pharisees eagerly watching to catch Him in doing that 
which was unlawful on the Sabbath, according to their 
tradition. ‘And when he had looked round about on 
them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of 
their heart, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thy 
hand” (Mark 3: 1-6). What a window into His soul, 
in which pity and anger are commingled! ‘Told that 
His mother and brothers are without seeking for Him, 
and knowing why they have come, “looking round on 
them which sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my 
mother and my brethren” (Mark 3:34). When the 
woman touched His robe in the throng, “He looked 
round about to see her” (Mark 5: 32), andin Moffatt’s 
graphic version, “He kept looking round,’ and then 
“turning and seeing her said, Daughter, be of good 
cheer ; thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matt. 9: 22). 
In the desert place, “Jesus therefore lifting up his 
eyes and seeing the multitude,’ in compassion com- 
mands their feeding (John 6:5). And when all were 
seated, ‘““He took the five loaves and two fishes, and 
looking up to heaven, he blessed them and brake” 


THE TEACHER 35 


(Luke 9: 16; Matt. 14:19). Before giving the sermon 
reported by Luke, “raising his eyes he looked at his 
disciples” (Luke 6:2; M.). 

How the look disclosed the feelings—by turns ten- 
der, severe, loving, reproachful, joyous, sorrowful, 
compassionate, scornful and appealing. Peter began to 
rebuke Him for foretelling His coming sufferings and 
death, “but when he had turned about and looked on 
his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind 
me, Satan” (Mark 8:33). In striking contrast, when 
the rich young ruler came running to Him, kneeling 
and asking, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit 
eternal life?” Jesus “looking upon him loved him.” 
And as the eager questioner turned away, “Jesus looked 
vound about,’ and spake unto His disciples (Mark 
10:23), who were eye-witnesses both of the loving 
look of the Master and the expression on the face of 
the young man, who became “exceeding sorrowful” as 
he gave up the imperishable for the perishable riches 
(inke vis -i23:): 

After the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm 
Sunday, Jesus came into the Temple courts, and “when 
he had looked round about upon all things’? He went 
to Bethany (Mark 11:11); but can we doubt that 
what He saw in that sweeping look determined the 
treatment He would give the Temple desecrators on 
the morrow. And we can see the glint in His eye and 
feel the flint in His voice as He began to cast out the 
buyers and sellers who had turned His Father’s “house 
of prayer” into a “den of thieves” (Matt. 21:12, 13). 

We can readily imagine also the burning intensity in 
His eyes on that striking occasion when, after the 
chief priests and scribes with the elders came upon 
Him as He was teaching the people in the Temple and 


36 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


questioned His authority, He faced them with that 
scathing parable of the vineyard and the wicked hus- 
bandmen who at last killed the heir, with its warning ~ 
sequel of the destruction of those husbandmen by the 
lord of the vineyard. And when they cried out, “God 
forbid,’ “He looked upon them” and said, “the king- 
dom of God shall be taken away from you” (Luke 
20:17). They would have killed Him then had they 
dared, but fear of the people restrained them (Luke 
20:19; Mark 12:12) What a contrast in expres- 
sion when, after Peter’s third denial in the high priest’s 
courtyard, “the Lord turned round and looked at 
Peter’ (Luke 22:'613)7))) and) smitten Peter "went 
out and wept bitterly.”” And what love and pathos in 
the last recorded look of Jesus when, hanging on the 
cross in expiring agony, He “saw his mother and the 
disciple whom he loved standing by,’ and gave them 
toveach othersCJohnviO720))) 

Other traits and attitudes are revealed in incidental 
touches which bring the Teacher near in His human 
relations. He appears in highly contrasting moods, 
showing how immediately responsive He was to every 
situation, whether it involved meeting with an individ- 
ual or a small group or a multitude, with the friendly 
or the hostile. Read the record of a single day of 
His ministry, such as that recorded in the fifth chapter 
of Mark’s Gospel, note its swift transitions, and try to 
realize its drain upon the spiritual and physical vital- 
ity. Overflowing with sympathy and kindness, He 
freely manifests His feelings. He shows pity at sight 
of human suffering, sorrow and misfortune (Luke 
7:13; Mark 1:43); “groans in spirit’? over Mary’s 
grief for her brother, and weeps at the grave of His 
friend (John 11:33, 35); is moved with compassion 


THE TEACHER 37 


as He sees the multitude ‘as sheep without a shep- 
herd and began to teach them many things’ (Mark 
6:34); and is equally moved with anger and indigna- 
tion as He stands in the presence of those who pro- 
fessed to be the religious leaders but were in reality the 
spiritual burden-binders and false guides of the people, 
blind leaders of the blind. Mingled with the indigna- 
tion we can imagine His strongly ironical expres- 
sion as He goes on in that inimitable twenty-third chap- 
ter of Matthew to tell how the Pharisees devour 
widows’ houses; tithe mint, anise and cummin and neg- 
lect justice, mercy and faithfulness; strain out a gnat 
and swallow a camel; make clean the outside of the cup 
but leave the inside full of extortion and excess, and 
expect the pretence of long prayers to cover their 
hypocrisy. These are word pictures that have photo- 
graphed themselves upon the world’s memory and made 
pharisaism forever marked and abhorrent. 

It has been aptly said that Jesus had a very prodi- 
gality of sympathy. The power of His sympathetic 
expression finds proof in the fact that on certain occa- 
sions the very tones of His voice so deeply impressed 
themselves upon the memory of His hearers that the 
syllables He spoke in his native tongue, the Aramaic, 
have been preserved by the Evangelists, who wrote in 
Greek. Professor Glover, in explaining these Aramaic 
sentences, says it looks like a human instinct that made 
the writers keep the very words and tones of their 
Master, as most of us would wish to keep the accents 
and phrases of those we love.* Was there no satisfac- 
tion to the people who had lived with Jesus, when they 
read in Mark the very syllables they had heard Him 
use, and caught His great accents again? Is there not 


4T. R. Glover, “The Jesus of History,” p. 14. 


38 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


for Christians in every age a joy and an inspiration 
in knowing the very sounds His lips framed? The 
first word that His mother taught Him survives in 
Abba (Father )—something of His own speech to let 
us begin at the beginning; something wrung from His 
lips in the agony of the Garden (Mark 14: 36) ; some- 
thing again, that takes us to the very heart of Him 
at the end, in His cry, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtham 
(Mark 15:34). Is it not true that we come nearer 
to Him in that cry inthe language strange to us, but 
His own? Would not the story, again, be poorer with- 
out the tender little phrase that He used to the daughter 
of Jairus, when He took the child by the hand and 
said to her, Talitha cumi (which is translated damsel, | 
maiden, and little girl in different versions), I say 
unto thee, Arise (Mark 5:41). ‘So when the man 
who could neither hear nor speak came to Him, deeply 
moved, “looking up to heaven he sighed and said unto 
him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened,’ and immediately 
the man both heard and spoke (Mark 7:34). He 
also introduced the word ‘“mammon” into the Greek 
language and universal adoption, His epigrammatic use 
of it being so effective that Matthew and Luke trans- 
ferred instead of translating it, an example which the 
English translators of the Authorized and Revised ver- 
sions have happily followed. Nothing can take the 
place of His saying, “Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
~mon’’ (Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13). 

*’ Ever sympathetic with others, Jesus had a longing 
for human sympathy in His own lonely and trying 
hours. He knew the bitterness of being misunderstood 
and misjudged, even by those He loved (Mark 3:21). 
What a heart cry there is in those words which betray 
the family faithlessness, ““A man’s foes shall be they 


THE TEACHER 39 


of his own household” (Matt. 10: 36). And how this 
longing for companionship and the loyalty of friends 
shines out in that darkest hour of trial and self-con- 
quest in Gethsemane’s Garden. There is no more vivid 
word picture than this in the Gospels. The Evangel- 
ists have laid bare the soul of the Saviour, as though 
to show in some faint way the cost of humanity’s re- 
demption. Read the parallel descriptions in Matthew 
(26: 36-46) and Mark (14: 32-42), and note the spe- 
cial touches in Luke (22: 39-46). We see how Jesus, 
leaving the others, takes with Him Peter and James 
and John, the familiar three who have shared His most 
intimate fellowship, as He goes forward a little way 
to seek strength in prayer for the final ordeal which 
He must meet alone in communion with His Father. 
As He begins “to be sorrowful and sore troubled,” 
He turns to them and says, “My soul is exceeding 
sorrowful, even unto death; stay here and watch with 
me.” He wants the comfort of their presence. But 
while He agonizes in prayer, they fall asleep. And 
when He comes back and finds them sleeping, how 
quick His love to make excuse for them, “The spirit 
indeed is willing but the flesh is weak,” following that 
touching appeal, “Simon, could ye not watch with me 
one hour?” Thrice He repeats this experience. Hu- 
man help and comfort have failed Him, but the Divine 
support has come, and He has won His victory in those 
great words, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be 
done’’—words that summarize in a sentence the story 
of His life. 

The embodiment of animation, the Teacher’s ac- 
tions were often as expressive as His words. Signifi- 
cant was His use of the hand. We see the leper ap- 
proaching with his piteous appeal, “If thou wilt thou 


40 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


canst make me clean” (Mark 1:40). The touch was 
unlawful and exposed the Master to contagion, but the 
action was spontaneous and like Him. Again, brought 
into Simon’s house, where his wife’s mother lay sick 
of a fever, “He came and took her by the hand and 
lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her’’ 
(Mark 1:31). At sunset in Capernaum, when all the 
sick were brought to Him, ‘He laid his hands on every 
one of them and healed them” (Luke 4:40). When 
Peter’s impulsive faith failed him and he began to 
sink, Jesus “stretched forth his hand and caught him,” 
with the question that should still go to the heart of 
every hesitating disciple, “Why didst thou doubt?” 
(Matt. 14: 30-31). When He saw the woman in the 
synagogue bowed together with infirmity “He laid his 
hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight 
and glorified God” (Luke 13:13). At Bethsaida He 
took the blind man by the hand and brought him out 
of the village “and laid his hands upon him,” and 
when the man saw men as trees walking, “then again 
he laid his hands upon his eyes,” and he “saw all things 
clearly’ (Mark 8: 23-26): for Jesus wanted him, as 
He wants all, to see true, to see men as men, and to 
have a full and not a half sight, which in many ways 
is more perilous than blindness. And in that fascinat- 
ing picture of the loving Master with the little ones, 
we can imagine the light in His eyes and the smile 
on His lips as “He put his arms round them, laid 
his hands on them, and blessed them” (Mark 10: 16; 
M.). 

Full of action himself, He inspired action in others. 
He bade the paralytic take up his pallet and go home 
(Mark 2:11), and he obeyed. He told the man with 
the withered hand, “Stretch forth your hand” (Mark 


THE TEACHER 41 


3:5), and he did, and it was made whole like the 
other. He commanded the impotent man at the pool 
to “Get up, lift your mat, and walk” (John 5:8), and 
obedience was instantly rewarded. After the trans- 
figuration, when the unclean spirit had torn the boy 
and left him for dead, “Jesus took him by the hand 
and raised him up,’ healed him and gave him back 
to his father (Mark 9:27; Luke 9:42). There was 
life in His touch, and the warmth of brotherhood. 
Thomas Curtis Clark has caught the spirit of it: 


“The touch of human hands— 
That is the boon we ask; 


The touch of human hands— 
Such care as was in Him 

Who walked in Galilee 

Beside the silver sea; 

We need a patient guide 

Who understands, 

And the warmth, the loving warmth, 
Of human hands.” 


Jesus created this atmosphere of loving warmth, of 
understanding sympathy with human heart-hunger and 
need, It was an atmosphere, too, in which buoyancy 
and gladness were predominant. The life was so joy- 
ous, indeed, as to create comment and question con- 
cerning their high spirits and their neglect of fasting, 
in contrast to the disciples of John and to the Pharisees. 
Wilton Rix suggests, in that original interpretation of 
his, “Jesus, Lover of Men,” that “the joyousness of 
His followers was very precious to Jesus,” and cites 
the fact that when John’s disciples brought this criti- 
cism to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees 
fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?” it was the Master 


AQ “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Himself who put the question, “Can friends at a wed- 
ding fast while the bridegroom 1s beside them?” ( Matt. 
9:14-15; Mark 2: 18-20; Luke 5: 33-35). In other 
words, ‘Should the groomsmen be gloomy while the 
preparations are going on? His disciples were too 
happy and expectant for restraint. They were looking 
for a heavenly reign to commence. The spirit of the 
new kingdom was already in their hearts.” And 
wherever the Master was, whether with His inner circle 
or among the people at‘large, there also was what met 
human need—warmth and affection, help and healing, 
life and light, and the gracious outgiving of a great 
heart. 

We are now in position to appraise the material 
which the records furnish as to characteristic traits 
and external demeanor, and judge how far this enables 
us to clothe with reality the Personality of the Teacher. 
We have discovered also that the Gospels contain some- 
thing of infinitely greater value than any description 
of the personal appearance of Jesus, in their rich and 
ample portrayal of His character. That is what mat- 
ters. We should love to see His face, but we desire 
above all to know Him, the Son, 


“Who turned the God of Fear 

To a Father bending near; 

Who saw in children’s eyes 

Eternal Paradise; 

Who looked through shame and sin 
At the sanctity within.” 5 


This knowledge, so far as it can be gained from written 
records, is open to us in the Gospels, which present the 
conspicuous traits of “this character of singular posi- 


5“The Passing of Christ,” Richard Watson Gilder. 


THE TEACHER 43 


tiveness and consistency,” of unparalleled attractive- 
ness, beauty, strength and charm. We realize the truth 
of the statement that just as the Gospels were not writ- 
ten to satisfy the curiosity of future ages, but to per- 
petuate the record of the Master’s deeds and words, so 
“Jesus is not posing before the glass of the future. 
He is indifferent to great occasions or striking effects. 
He lavishes His care on single, obscure and unrespon- 
sive lives. He is marked by what has been called ac- 
cessibility, the unassuming candor of the unconstrained 
and unaffected life. He is occupied in doing not His 
own will, but the will of the Father who sends Him, 
and in accomplishing the work which is given Him 
to do. Thus it happens that we are more familiar with 
the spiritual traits of Jesus than with His outward 
form. His profoundest utterances and even His pri- 
vate thoughts have been preserved to us by the reten- 
tiveness of love, while the physical appearance can be 
at the best only inferred from the impression created 
by His acts and words. His face was once a key to 
His character; His character must now suggest His 
Tees, 

Coming now to consider these conspicuous traits of 
character, in the light of the Gospel records, we find 
that the first and the enduring impression made upon 
us by the Teacher is that of Power. He walked among 
men as a Master, and His mastery was acknowledged 
even by His enemies, who said, “All the world is gone 
after him” ‘(John 12:19). The Gospels reveal: in 
Him commanding power of intellect, of will, and of 
control over forces human and superhuman. This 
power of Personality radiated from Him, and drew 
people irresistibly to Him. He called strong men to 


6 “Jesus Christ and the Christian Character,” p. 42. 


4d “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


drop their business and follow Him, and “straight- 
way,” without hesitation or question they did it (Matt. 
4: 20-21), and remained with Him, sharing His wan- 
dering life and uncertain lot.. We hear it said in ex- 
planation that those were primitive times and men were 
different, but there is no reason to believe that human 
nature has radically changed; and in fact, men have in 
every age since heard His call and given up all to fol- 
low Him. Power flowed forth as “healing virtue” 
from His touch, and eyen from His garment’s fringe 
at another’s touch of faith (Mark 5: 27-30); it bade 
the synagogue-president’s daughter and the widow’s 
son arise (Mark 5: 41; Luke 7: 14), and Death bowed 
before his only conqueror. The unclean spirits rec- 
ognized it and its source: “What have I to do with 
thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God?” (Mark 
5:7), and came out of their victims at His command. 
Even the forces of nature met their Master, and wind 
and wave had no alternative when He said, “Peace, 
be still?’ (Mark 4: 39). No wonder the men marveled 
and feared exceedingly, saying, “What manner of man 
is this, that he commandeth even the winds and the 
water, and they obey him?” (Luke 8:25). Every- 
where the life of the Teacher displays this power, 
wielded in gentleness and pity, compassion and love, 
save where the occasion called for sterner measures. 
The same Master who looked with healing compassion 
upon the sick and maimed, turned upon the traders in 
the Temple with righteous wrath and lashed the irre- 
ligious Pharisees with cutting indignation. 

We must believe that spiritual and physical power 
were perfectly blended in this phenomenal Personality. 
The Gospels show us that He had physical limitations. 
Wearied with the heat and walk, He sat down by 


THE TEACHER AS 


Jacob’s well in Samaria to rest, but even then could 
not resist the opportunity to teach and save (John 
4:5-26). Exhausted by His arduous labors and the 
incessant demands made upon His vital energy, He 
fell asleep in the storm-stricken boat on the lake (Mark 
4:38). But while these natural effects of fatigue are 
noted, there is never mention of health or illness in 
connection with Jesus, a singular thing in biography. 
In the poise of perfect health—physicai, mental and 
spiritual soundness—He moved men by the might of a 
moral and spiritual authority that was felt by all, and 
not least by those who feared and opposed Him. 

The records do not leave in doubt the effect of His 
power upon the ecclesiastical rulers and leaders, who 
saw no way to check it except by putting Him to death. 
“Tf we let him thus alone, all men will believe in him,” 
they said (John 11:48). They tried every trick to 
thwart His power over the people, but in vain. “They 
could not find what they might do, for the people all 
hung upon him listening’ (Luke 19:48). As for the 
multitude who heard Him teaching in the Temple, 
many believed on Him. Now greatly alarmed, the 
chief priests and Pharisees sent some of their attendants 
to take Him; but there arose a division about Him, 
and while some of them were in favor of taking Him, 
no man laid hands on Him; and when the attendants 
came back alone, the chief priests and Pharisees asked, 
“Why did ye not bring Him?’ The attendants an- 
swered, “Never man so spake,” thus bearing the strong- 
est witness to the power of Jesus’ personality. And 
all the disappointed Pharisees could say was, “Are ye 
also led astray?” (John 7: 25-52). 

This study of the Gospels disposes of two portraits 
of the Teacher that have been fostered by ecclesiastical 


46 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


tradition and by Christian art: the ascetic and the 
esthetic or effeminate. As we have seen, the records 
place Him at rather the other extreme. Those who 
would make Jesus of the ascetic type, as the truest 
representative of a holy life, have His own words and 
His life to face in contradiction. John the Baptist was 
the ascetic, spending those years in the desert, with- 
drawn from humanity, which Jesus spent in the car- 
penter shop at Nazareth, mingling in the village life, 
as each was preparing for his appointed mission. Jesus 
greatly admired his cousin John, as the eulogy shows 
which he gave after John’s disciples came with their 
question (Matt. 11: 7-14), but His views of life were 
His own and distinctly not those of a Nazarite. As_ 
He Himself described it, in one of those half-humor- 
ous, half-ironical utterances in which He pointed out 
how impossible it was to please the scribes and Phari- 
sees, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they 
say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating 
and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous 
and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” 
(Matt. 11: 18-19). 

Again, when He was upbraided by the Pharisees for 
eating with a mixed group, wholly disreputable in their 
dainty sight, He said, with a fine sarcasm that could 
hardly have escaped them, “I am not come to call the 
righteous but sinners to repentance’ (Luke 5:32). 
It was one of the serious charges they brought against 
Him, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with 
them” (Luke 15:'2) No, the Teacher was notran 
ascetic, any more than He was a fanatic. He “does 
not teach bodily mortification, but bodily sanctifica- 
tion.” He was the fulfilment of the prophecies; He 
was smitten and bruised for our transgressions; He 


THE TEACHER 47 


had His Gethsemane and Calvary; He was “a man 
of sorrows and acquainted with grief”; but we must 
not overlook what is made so clear in the Gospels, that 
He was also a man of deep and abiding joy and ac- 
quainted with life, and that He taught men to see life 
whole. It is impossible to imagine Him who was the 
light and life of men (John 1: 4) diffusing an atmos- 
phere of gloom, even in His darkest hours, and the 
evidence is all against it. He was sympathetic but 
not sentimental. If He sighed over sorrow, He also 
played with the children. He wept with those who 
wept and rejoiced with those who rejoiced. And He 
was the furthest remove from priestly assumption or 
rabbinical aloofness. In His School we have seen Him 
as the companion of His pupils, who were made com- 
rades and friends, yet always realized that He was the 
Master. It was the priestly and ecclesiastical caste 
system that He exposed for its irreligion and hypocrisy 
and opposed for its selfish exploitation of the people. 
He was the people’s prophet and friend, and freely 
mingled with all sorts and conditions of men, that He 
might make known to them God the Father and lead 
them into the Kingdom of heaven. 

_ It is equally clear from the records that there was 
nothing effeminate about the Teacher. No weakling 
could have done His work. As we have seen, it re- 
quired superhuman strength of personality to do what 
He did with men. His appeal was to men of sturdy 
sort, and these He gathered about Him; men who knew 
daily toil, as He Himself did; none of them of the 
priestly or professional class, whose preconceptions 
would have made it difficult if not impossible to mold 
them. We remember that two of the Twelve were 
nicknamed ‘“‘sons of Thunder,” and another was called 


48 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


by the Master the “rock.” Those who have been wont 
to think of Jesus as wanting in manly strength and 
courage, mistaking His gentleness for weakness, should 
note that from the very beginning of His ministry He 
stood in outspoken and fearless opposition to the all- 
powerful religious organization of His people, con- 
stantly braving peril and death, and resolutely attack- 
ing entrenched evils and the forces of unrighteousness, 
the ‘principalities and powers, the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places” 
(Eph. 6712): 

As for His courage, take that incident where some 
Pharisees came up to tell Him, “Get away from here, 
for Herod intends to kill you.” Well He knew that 
Herod had the power. But mark the closing words 
of His message to “that fox.” Regardless of the 
known peril to Himself, He says calmly, “Nevertheless 
I must walk (go on my way) to-day, and to-morrow, 
and the next day: for it cannot be that a prophet perish 
out of Jerusalem’ (Luke 13: 31-33). He foresaw 
clearly all that He must pass through, yet went straight 
forward. See Him, again, as He faces the band of 
men and officers that came to seize Him in the Garden, 
and after the Judas-kiss asks, ““Whom seek ye?” And 
when they answered, Jesus of Nazareth, He said, “I 
am he.’ Whereupon they “went backward and fell 
to the ground,” and only after He had asked again 
whom they sought, laid hold upon Him (John 18: 3- 
12). What was it that so impressed and overcame 
these men? What proof of the spiritual power and 
moral majesty of the Master! But it must be remem- 
bered that the entire public life of Jesus was one of 
struggle against opposing forces, bitter and malignant, 
which were aroused and inflamed by His teaching and 


THE TEACHER 49 


example. He was a Teacher of moral reforms and 
revolutionary principles, and only a dauntless courage 
and inflexible will could have carried Him through to 
the cross. True manliness and bravery, the supremacy 
of moral and spiritual character, shine out through all 
His story. 

In a fine chapter on “The Chivalry of Jesus,’ 7? Dr. 
Jefferson chooses chivalry as the word that best ex- 
presses a quality of Jesus that supplements courage. 
He says: “He was heroic but He was more than that. 
His heroism was a superb gallantry and something 
more. There was in it a delicious courtesy, a beautiful 
and gentle graciousness toward the weak and helpless. 
... Jesus of Nazareth was a knight. On foot He 
traveled forth, clad in the armor of a peerless man- 
hood, to shield the weak, maintain the right, and live 
a life that should charm and win the world... .” 
Then the writer pictures the Knight whose heart was 
pierced by physical distress and ever open to the neg- 
lected and forlorn, the outcasts, even the despised Sa- 
maritans; who braved hostility and criticism by asso- 
ciating with publicans and sinners; and who in His 
attitude to woman displayed His chivalry in its finest 
expression. The one rule He laid down with author- 
ity was regarding divorce, where He revoked the lib- 
erty granted by Moses and declared the law of God, 
by Whom marriage is ordained. ‘He had the nerve, 
the mettle, and the intrepidity of the bravest of the 
knights, and along with this He had a sweet winsome- 
ness, a divine graciousness which history cannot 
match.”’ 

This is a note that needs to be sounded to-day. Our 
young people would do well to read that tonic volume 


7 Charles E. Jefferson, “The Character of Jesus.” 


50 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


by Thomas Hughes, “The Manliness of Christ.” Jesus 
Christ was and forever will be the manliest among the 
sons of men. He is as perfect an example of chivalry, 
courage and heroism as of purity, power and self-giv- 
ing. Tennyson saw it, as he sings: 


“Strong Son of God, Immortal Love; 
Whom we, that have not seen Thy face, 
By faith, and faith alone, embrace, 

Believing where we cannot prove; 


“Thou seemest human and divine, 
The highest, holiest manhood, Thou: 
Our wills are ours, we know not how; 
Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.” 


These impressions are accompanied closely by others, 
such as the perfect blending of simplicity and sub- 
limity, sincerity and frankness, tenderness and firmness, 
kindness and justness, pity and patience, dignity and 
graciousness, humility and majesty, in the radiant Per- 
sonality of the Teacher. “Radiant” is the suggestion 
that comes from the one instance in which reference 
is made to the face or countenance of Jesus: in the 
Transfiguration, where it is said, “As he prayed, the 
fashion of his countenance was altered,” or as Moffatt 
translates it, “the appearance of his face altered” (Luke 
9:29), while Matthew says, “His face shone like the 
sun’ (17:2). Principal Jacks says, in his suggestive 
little book on “The Lost Radiance of the Christian 
Religion,” that “at was in the form of a Person that 
the radiance of Christianity made its first appearance 
and its first impression on the world; and that this 
Personality made it the religion most encouraging, most 
joyous, of all religions.” This impression deepens as 
we study the Gospel narratives. There is always an 


THE TEACHER a 


underlying note of peace and joy in the Master’s life 
and teaching, and this was one of His precious legacies 
to His disciples (John 15:11). If it be true that this 
note has become largely mute in Christian experience 
to-day, that makes it the more essential that we should 
keep our place as pupils at the Teacher’s feet till we 
have learned the secret of His power and so imbibed 
His spirit as to be prepared to play nobly our part in 
restoring the lost joy and radiance to the church, and 
so to the world that is dun and dreary for want of it. 

Many other character qualities are mentioned in the 
_ records, that serve to fill out the picture of Personality. 
There are such traits as meekness and forbearance, 
sociability and isolation. He lives with the crowds 
by day, serving them unsparingly, and then withdraws 
to the mountain solitudes to spend the night in com- 
munion with His Father, renewing in prayer the power 
spent in service (Luke 6:12). We mark His deter- 
mination in that unusual phrase, “He steadfastly set 
his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51), as we do 
His forbearance and forgiveness in the accompanying 
story. We note His modesty combined with self-con- 
sciousness. ‘What a self-consciousness of power must 
have been His,” says a recent writer, “who could de- 
scribe Himself as ‘meek and lowly in heart,’ while at 
the same time declaring, ‘Come unto me, all ye that 
are weary and heavy laden, and J will give you rest’ ”’ 
(Matt. 11:28). For a mere man to say that would 
at once be recognized by the hearers as a preposterous 
and empty boast. But it fell naturally from His lips, 
as did all His amazing utterances. It could only be 
said with-truth and significance by the Son of God, 
conscious of the infinite resources of Divine power at 
His command (Matt. 26: 53). 


52 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Thus far we have been viewing the Personality of 
the Teacher through the glass of the Gospels, seeking 
to discover what He signified to those who were in 
direct personal contact with Him in His earthly life. 
With this limitation to His own time, we have found 
that He transcends our comprehension, even as He did 
that of His closest companions and friends, and of the 
Pharisees who were confounded by His wisdom (John 
7:15). No Rabbi, and yet more than Rabbi. The 
realization has grown upon us, as we have been living 
in this atmosphere and association, of that “something 
more’’—the something more that drew the “publicans 
and sinners around Him’’; that made Him the life- 
restorer of the throngs of crippled, diseased, sin-tor- 
mented, demon-possessed and helpless; that led Peter 
to say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the 
words of eternal life’ (John 6:68); and that brought 
doubting Thomas in penitence to his knees with the ex- 
clamation, “My Lord, and my God” (John 20: 28). 
We are ready even now to join him in that declaration, 
and claim the blessing of those who, not having seen, 
have yet believed. But when we make the approach 
from our own day, with all the added light of Calvary, 
the Resurrection and Ascension, Pentecost and the New 
‘Testament records ; and more than this, the immeasura- 
ble volume of testimony that has accumulated during 
the centuries of the Christian era, we see at once that 
human history shows no other Personality so com- 
manding and compelling, so powerful, so truly the 
archetypal, ideal man. There is no other that ap- 
proaches it in influence through all the ages, nor as a 
living force in the life of mankind at this hour. We 
are in the presence of the “Universal Homo, blending 
in Himself all races, ages, sexes, temperaments”; of 


THE TEACHER 53 


the “Essential Vir, from the hem of whose robe virtue 
is ever flowing,” to quote George Dana Boardman’s 
quaint phrases; of the “Son of Man,” to adopt the sig- 
nificant biblical term which was a favorite with Jesus 
Himself. And surely we can say, with Peter on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, ‘Master, it is good for us 
to be here’ (Luke 9:33). As we go on through the 
teachings, we shall all the time be learning more not 
only from the Teacher but of Him. And the more 
we know Him, the richer will be our lives, the stronger 
our will to follow, the greater our love. 

In closing this study, whose purpose is to make the 
Personality of our Lord real and near and living to 
us, we find suggestion and inspiration in the following 
passage by a writer whose spiritual insight has been 
most helpful to his readers: ® 

“When we make our picture of Him, does it suggest 
the man who has stirred mankind to its depths, set the 
world on fire (Luke 12:49) and played an infinitely 
larger part in all the affairs of men than any man we 
know of in history? Is it a great figure? Does our 
emphasis fall on the great features of that nature—are 
they within our vision, and in our drawing? Does 
our explanation of Him really explain Him, or leave 
Him more a riddle? What do we make of His origi- 
nality? What was it in Him that changed Peter and 
James and John and the rest from companions into 
worshipers, that in every age has captured and con- 
trolled the best, the deepest, and tenderest of men? 
Are we afraid our picture will be too modern, too little 
Jewish? These are not the real dangers. Again and 
again our danger is that we underestimate. But not 
to underestimate such a figure is hard. To see Him as 


8 T. R. Glover, ““The Jesus of History,” pp. 21-22, 


54 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


He is calls for all we have of intellect, of tenderness, 
of love, and of greatness. It is worth while to try 
to understand Him even if we fail. God, said St. Ber- 
nard, is never sought in vain, even when we do not 
find Him. Jesus Christ transcends our categories and 
classification; we never exhaust Him; and one element 
of Christian happiness is that there is always more in 
Him than we supposed.” 
In the words of Reverend J. Edgar Park: 


“We would see Jesus, Mary’s son most holy, 
Light of the village life from day to day; 
Shining revealed thro’ every task most lowly, 
The Christ of God, the Life, the Truth, the Way. 


“We would see Jesus, on the mountain teaching, 
With all the listening people gathered round; 
While birds and flowers and sky above are preaching, 
The blessedness which simple trust has found. 


“We would see Jesus, in His work of healing, 
At eventide before the sun was set; 
Divine and human, in His deep revealing 
Of God and man in loving service met.” 


CHAPTER THREE 


DEE bE ACHING 


Follow with reverent steps the great example 
Of Him whose holy work was “doing good”; 
So shall the wide earth seem our Father’s temple, 
Each loving life a psalm of gratitude. 
—J. G. Whittrer. 


Such is the Teacher of the Twelve. When shall He be 
accorded His rightful place as the Master of the World? 
He calls us to discipleship that we may not only know the 
blessedness of fellowship with Him, but that we may also 
be instructed and inspired for truer service in the world.— 
J.W. G. Ward. 


Look at His method of teaching. He said that the word 
is the overflow of the heart (Matt. 12:34). What a heart, 
then, His words reveal! How easy and straightforward 
His language is! To-day we all use abstract nouns to con- 
vey our meaning; we cannot do without words ending in 
-ality and -ation. But there is no recorded saying of Jesus 
where He uses even “personality.” He does not use abstract 
nouns. He sticks to plain words. When He speaks about 
God He does not say “the Great First Cause,” or “Provi- 
dence,” or any other vague abstract. Still less does He 
use an adverb from the abstract, like “providentially.” He 
says, “your heavenly Father.” He does not talk of “human- 
ity’; He says, “your brethren.” He has no jargon, no tech- 
nical terms, no scholastic vocabulary. ... His language is 
simple and direct, the inevitable expression of a rich nature 
and a habit of truth. ... His words caught the attention 
and lived in the memory; they revealed such a nature; they 
were so living and unforgettable—T. R. Glover. 


Cuarpter THREE 
THE TEACHING 


From the School and the Teacher we turn to the 
Teaching, to note its characteristics and methods. As 
the Teacher has His own ideas and ways of living, so 
He has His own methods of teaching. Teacher He 
is preeminently; He is so addressed nearly fifty times 
in the New Testament;* but He is as unique in in- 
struction as in all else. With His pupils it is constantly 
the unexpected that happens, and He must often have 
been as much of a surprise to His closest companions 
as to the scribes and Pharisees, and to the people who 
could only say, “We never saw it on this fashion,” 
or in Moffatt’s more colloquial phrasing, ““We never 
saw the like of it” (Luke 2:10). Realize that Jesus 
when He began to teach was about thirty years of age 
(Luke 3:23). 

The first characteristic we note in the Teaching is its 
quiet assumption of Authority. As the Gospels tell us, 
this was the immediate impression it made upon His 
hearers when, on the first Sabbath of His new ministry, 
He entered into the synagogue of Capernaum and 
taught; “and they were astounded at his teaching, for 
he taught them like an authority, not like the scribes” 
(Mark 1:22; M.). Matthew says the same profound 
impression was made upon the amazed crowds at the 
close of the Sermon on the Mount (7:29). The 
scribes or lawyers, who were the expositors of the 
Mosaic and Levitical law, with the innumerable addi- 


1The Greek word Atddcxados, Teacher, is commonly translated 
“Master.” ey 


58 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


tions of tradition, ventured no statement without jus- 
tifying it by the word of the famous Rabbis. But 
Jesus teaches, not from “a reservoir of quotations,” 
but as His own authority. He appeals to none; He 
does not argue or reason; He simply declares the truth, 
with an assurance that is absolute. He never speaks 
as if in doubt; always as if His word were sufficient : 
“T say unto you,” or “Verily. (or truly), I say unto 
you” (Matt. 5:18, 22, and frequently elsewhere). 
Calmly and deliberately He places His own words 
above the traditional interpretation of the ancient Law, 
which He said He came not to destroy but to fulfil 
(Matt. 5:17), which indeed He extends and spiritual- 
izes. Six times in the hillside teaching which we know 
as the Sermon on the Mount, He quotes command- 
ments from the Mosaic Law, and then restates them in 
His own way. For example: ‘Ye have heard that it 
was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear 
thyself... but J say unto you, swear not at all” 
(Matt. 5: 33-35). There is the “I” of the Teacher put 
boldly with the air of finality over against the sayings 
of Rabbis and prophets and Moses himself. “Here 
was one,’ as Professor Dickey says, “who was con- 
scious that He was greater than Moses, that His knowl- 
edge of God’s will and sympathy with His spirit trans- 
cended even that of the founder of the Jewish re- 
ligion. His sense of sonship with the Father made 
Him the unique exponent of His will to men, and the 
new era He inaugurated original and independent, 
though not contradictory of what had gone before.” 
In this clear consciousness of Divine authority given 
Him by the Father (Matt. 11: 27), rests the compelling 
and enduring power of Jesus as Teacher, from His own 
day till now. In His certainty men have rested, in 


THE TEACHING 59 


His words they have found “spirit and life” through 
the ages. 

In speaking of the difference between the style of the 
Rabbis’ teaching and that of Jesus, Professor Glover 
draws a striking comparison. He says Rabbi Eliezer 
of those times was praised as “‘a well trough that loses 
not a drop of water.” We all know that type of 
teacher—the tank-mind, full no doubt, supplied by 
pipes, and ministering its gifts by pipe and tap, regu- 
lated, tiresome, and dead. “The water that I shall 
give him,” says Jesus, “shall be in him a well of water 
springing up unto everlasting life’ (John 4:14). The 
metaphors of the New Testament are not of trough and 
tank.’ 

Nor is the teaching anywhere of the stilted and mem- 
orizing or catechetical kind. Originality is its striking 
quality. He quotes a saying and makes it new by the 
emphasis He supplies. “By emphasizing mercy in- 
stead of sacrifice he made religion new.” “Never man 
so spake” applies to the manner as well as to the mat- 
ter, and above all to the Personality behind them. But 
the matter is so unconventional, so novel, so full of 
living pictures drawn from nature and everyday life 
and events, as to make it stand entirely by itself. He 
“breeds illustrations as the sun breeds clouds,” and as 
naturally; and they are always illustrations that illus- 
trate. We see in them the close observation that treas- 
ured the incidents and experiences of the early days in 
the home and village life, and later brought forth from 
them their lessons. We see also the quick sympathy 
with living things which appeal to His heart, and the 
intimate understanding of men and women which en- 
ables Him to draw and win them. 


2“The Jesus of History,” p. 58. 


60 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Environment supplies Him with its special types of 
illustration, whether He is in fertile, agricultural, 
sunny, Gentile Galilee or barren, pastoral, gloomy, 
Pharisaic Judea. In Galilee, for example, where He 
spent the most of His life and ministry, where in the 
freer air He escaped the influence of the selfishness and 
bigotry that marked the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, 
everything has its lesson for His imagination—flowers 
and birds, fig tree and vine, storm winds and signs 
of seasons, sower and seed, fishing and the mending of 
nets, the varied soils and the varied life of the home, 
the farm, the workshop, and the cities. We see in 
the parables how He drew upon all sources—the house- 
wife with her leaven and coin-chain (Matt. 13: 33; 
Luke 15:4); the fisherman and his dragnet (Matt. 
13:47); the sower and seed (Matt. 13: 3-9); the rich 
householders leaving their homes with the porters set 
to watch (Matt. 24:43; Luke 12:41); the market- 
places (Luke 7:32), streets, highways and hedges 
(Matt. 22: 2-10) ; the social feasts (Mark 2:15; Luke 
7:36); the pulling down of barns and building greater 
(Luke 12:16-20); the grinding millstones (Matt. 
24:41), and the chaff, tares and wheat (Matt. 13: 24- 
30), making the commonplace in life reveal the sublime 
in truth. 

Then, as He passes from the sunshine of Galilee into 
the silence of the Ghor and the narrow and steep pas- 
sages that lie between Jericho and Jerusalem, the ex- 
perience yields Him the parable of the Good Samaritan 
(Luke 10: 29-37); and when He comes into Judea, 
province of pasture and vineyard, the contrasting scenes 
furnish to His sensitive eye and soul the exquisite 
similes of the Good Shepherd (John 10: 11); the vine 
and branches (John 15: 1-5); pruning and fruit-bear- 


THE TEACHING 61 


ing (John 1:2); the wicked husbandmen (Matt. 
21: 33-43); the fruitless fig tree (Luke 13:6); the 
parable of the sheep and goats (Matt. 25: 31-46) ; the 
vineyard laborers (Matt. 20:1-16); the one sheep 
fallen into the pit (Matt. 12:11); the sheep in the 
midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16); and that touching 
picture of the stray sheep and the shepherd going into 
the mountains after it (Matt. 18:12). The Temple 
courts suggest the Father’s house with the many man- 
sions (John 14:2). Observation of the Pharisees 
leads to His warning against hypocritical charity, 
prayers for publicity, fasting and pride (Matt. 6); 
denunciation of their wickedness in that acute delinea- 
tion of their character (Matt. 23); and disclosure of 
their nature in seeking the chief rooms at the feasts 
(Luke 14:7), and as seen in the Pharisee and publican 
praying (Luke 18:10-14). Thus the Teacher immor- 
talized Judea as well as Galilee in His teaching, and 
made Samaria known forever by a single lesson in 
which a woman was His only pupil (John 4: 7-26). 
There is in His teachings a freshness as perennial as 
their truth is timeless. His parables and illustrations 
fit all periods of time and all people in all lands. 
Wherever human nature is, there His lessons are ap- 
plicable, for He knew its innermost secrets and pos- 
sessed the power to meet its deepest needs. Every- 
thing quivered with life and meaning for Him. Who 
else could make the abstract concrete as He did? Who 
else would think of using the simple material which 
furnished Him with the most impressive illustrations ? 
As a recent writer says:? “He clothed divine truth in 
human garb till it came with irresistible charm and 
appeal. His matchless stories were so easily grasped 


3jJ. G. W. ‘Ward, in “The Master and the Twelve,” p. 240. 


62 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


that the untutored were able to apprehend some of their 
meaning, while on the other hand they were so pro- 
found that there were always unsounded depths for the 
thoughtful mind to plumb. He took the homeliest 
things and invested them with regal dignity. From 
the common ways of human life Jesus picked up the 
gems that other eyes had never seen, and when He 
held them up to the light of heaven, they flashed with 
the varied and scintillating rays of the diamond. The 
hen and her chickens illustrated the parental care of 
the Divine heart. The mother kneading bread, patch- 
ing a torn garment, salting the sparse portion of meat, 
or kindling the tiny lamp that gave light at eventide, 
were all pressed into the service of His gospel, and we 
feel how well Tennyson expressed it: 


“Though truths in manhood darkly join, 
Deep-seated in our mystic frame, 
We yield all blessing to the name 

Of Him that made them current coin.” 


His teaching reveals Him as master of all the arts 
and graces of rhetoric, yet without the slightest trace 
of pedantry. Metaphors and similes, epigrams and 
aphorisms flow from His lips as naturally as water 
flows from the fountain. Humor, delicate irony and 
keen satire are at His command. His words are born 
of the place and occasion, which never fail to furnish 
the suggestion and swift response, ‘quick realization 
of a situation, a character, or the meaning of a word.” 
Note the aptness and sententiousness of these exam- 
ples: 


No man can serve two masters; for he will love the one 
and hate the other. 


THE TEACHING 63 


They that are whole have no need of a physician, but 
they that are sick. 

He that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in 
much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unright- 
eous also in much. 

The sabbath was made for man and not man for the 
sabbath. 

What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul? 

Ye are the salt of the earth. — 

The children of this world are in their generation wiser 
than the children of light. 

Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot 
be hid. 

Love your enemies, and do them good. 

Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. 

The lamp of the body is the eye. 

Is not the life more than the food, and the body than 
the raiment? 

Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto 
his stature? 

Be not therefore anxious for the morrow, for the morrow 
will be anxious for itself. 

Judge not, that ye be not judged. 

Give and it shall be given unto you. 

Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, 
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 

By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes 
of thorns, or figs of thistles? 

Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desola- 
tion; and every city or house divided against itself shall 
not stand. 

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 

Nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest; nor any- 
thing secret that shall not be revealed. 

He that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, 
from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. 

A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, 
and among his own kin, and in his own house. 

The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few. 


O4 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


A pupil is not above his teacher, nor a servant above 
his lord. 

The very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

A man’s foes shall be they of his own household. 

They are blind guides; and if the blind guide the blind, 
both shall fall into a pit. 

Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous 
judgment. 

Many are called, but few are chosen. 

He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the 
sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief 
and a robber. I am the door. 

Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye took away the key of 
knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were 
entering in ye hindered. 

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be re- 
quired. 

For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and 
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 

The last shall be first, and the first shall be last. 

It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 

With men this is impossible; but with God all things are 
possible. 

Render unto Cesar the things that are Czsar’s, and unto 
God the things that are God’s. 

He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. For 
the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to 
minister. 

In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; 
I have overcome the world. 


Every one of these detached sayings has its setting, 
and should be studied in its connection in order to be 
seen in the richness and fullness of its meaning. Each 
was probably a text expanded and expounded. The 
purpose here is to indicate the natural, picturesque and 
spontaneous quality of the teaching, which has nothing 
in it of the bookish or of the premeditated. Concerned 


THE TEACHING 65 


primarily and fundamentally with life, the lessons and 
illustrations come out of life and nature, and have 
the immediate application of truth to present circum- 
stances, while at the same time they enunciate prin- 
ciples which are of eternal and universal validity. Here 
is a Teacher who knows that a man is more impor- 
tant than an institution, and makes truth interesting 
because He links it all in with life and makes the 
individual soul the supreme thing in the universe. 

The Teacher’s method recognizes the value of repeti- 
tion and emphasis. His pupils could not doubt that in 
His estimation Love is the greatest thing in the world. 
Himself the revelation of Divine Love, He teaches 
both the inexpressible love of God for man (John 
3:16) and man’s supreme duty to love God and his 
neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). He uses the word love 
sixty-two times (as quoted in the Gospels) ; enjoining 
love to fellow man fourteen times: love to neighbor, 
love to enemies, love in life’s relationships. He gives 
but a single new commandment, “that ye love one an- 
other, even as I have loved you” (John 13: 34-35; 
Pete) eo Liis)he repeats in verse 17. ‘Note also the 
many repetitions of the word in the fourteenth and fif- 
teenth chapters of John, where He makes it clear who 
it is that truly loves Him, and gives that wonderful 
promise of the Father’s love and the abiding presence 
of the Father and Himself: “we will come’ (John 
14:23). Love to God, to the Son, to one another and 
to neighbor, inseparably united in this Teaching which 
has never yet been taken seriously to heart by the 
world, but which, when it becomes a universal prac- 
tice, will make a new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness. (Note John 14:21, 23, 24, 313; 15:9, 10, 12, 13, 
17; 16:27; 17:26.) How significant, too, that last 


66 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


and trying lesson when the Teacher draws out the 
personal relationship in the thrice repeated question 
to Peter, on the shore of Tiberias, “Lovest thou me?” 
(John 21: 15-20). Not only in words, however, but 
through all the life with the Teacher love was diffused 
by His radiating personality. 

The Teacher’s use of the Scriptures shows both His 
perfect familiarity with them, and His aptness in select- 
ing precisely the passages which meet the occasion. The 
Old Testament was the one Book of His boyhood, and 
He had memorized it at home or in school, so that He 
could quote at pleasure and always to purpose. From 
the Temptation on, when His enemies sought to entrap 
Him, He confounded them from the Scriptures, until 
they dared no more to ask Him questions (Luke 
20:40; Matt. 22:46). When the lawyer came tempt- 
ing, Jesus asked, “What is written in the law? How 
readest thou?” (Luke 10:26). The Pharisees asked 
in wonder, “How knoweth this man letters, having 
never learned?” His ready answer was, “My teaching 
is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:15, 16). 
But while He had not learned in the rabbinical schools 
the lore of the Rabbis, He had studied people and na- 
ture, and penetrated to the spiritual secret of life, thus 
acquiring the real learning, compared to which theirs 
was scholastic and superficial. They had minute and 
endless rules; He had intellectual insight, and declared 
the principles which underlie conduct and create char- 
acter, “‘What He taught,” says Robert Louis Steven- 
son, “was not a code of rules, but a loving spirit.” 
‘Where the Pharisees were expounding precepts of 
casuistry, Jesus was teaching principles of morality. 
Instead of washings and tithings, He set forth the com- 
prehensive commandments upon which the whole law 


THE TEACHING 67 


and prophets hung. . . . His teaching is not of a logic 
of doctrine, but of a way of life. ‘Follow me,’ He says, 
‘Take up thy cross and follow me’; and along the way 
of the Christian character may be discovered the articles 
of the Christian creed.” * 

It is notable that in His use of the Scriptures Jesus 
not only puts His own interpretation upon many pas- 
sages, but also translates their negatives into positives, 
so that the ‘Thou shalt not” of the Old Testament be- 
comes the “Thou shalt” of the New. His teaching is 
a summons to the will, not simply an appeal to the 
emotions. ‘‘My meat is to do the will of him that 
sent me’ (John 4:34). Not those shall be accepted, 
He says, who say “Lord, Lord,’ but those who “do 
the will of my Father” (Matt. 7:21). He declares, 
“He that willeth to do the will shall know of the teach- 
ing” (John 7:17). To the Jews who sought to kill 
Him, His injunction is to “search the Scriptures” and 
find there the testimony concerning Him (John 5: 39). 
For it was in those same Scriptures, which He knew 
so much more truly and profoundly than did the doc- 
tors of the law who had made them a life study, that 
He had found Himself, and knew the fate that lay 
before Him as the Messiah, the Redeemer of the 
world. 

As we go on in our study, applying the teaching of 
Jesus to specific subjects, we shall discover how inclu- 
sive and complete it is. We shall realize that the 
Teacher introduced a new note, which distinguishes His 
teaching from that of other moralists. Where they 
establish a system of rules which are bound as burdens 
on men’s backs, He lays down the great controlling 
principles which should govern conduct and life, and 


4“Jesus Christ and the Christian Character,” pp. 75-77. 


68 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


then makes obedience to these principles depend not 
upon outward authority but upon the inward motive. 
And this inward motive He supplies, this being some- 
thing beyond mere human power to do. This is the 
Divine dynamic that is ultimately to redeem the world. 

We shall see that this teaching is new, also, in its 
demand for self-surrender and self-renunciation (Luke 
14:26, 33), which are to be clearly distinguished from 
asceticism, with its false interpretations and philosophy. 
It is new in its emphasis upon the individual, instead 
of the family or group, society or nation. While the 
teaching is social, it is unjustifiable to make this a 
primary motive and exploit Jesus as a social reformer, 
as many in these days do. As Professor Scott points 
out,” Jesus saw men not as units in a society or a 
group, but as personal beings, each having value, sepa- 
rate and absolute worth, in the sight of God. His social 
teaching had its roots in this individualism, and fail- 
ure to recognize this is where the social theorists mis- 
take the program of the Teacher and the elementary 
principles of His teaching. In the last analysis man 
is not a social unit but a soul, according to this Teacher, 
who has given man a new status in the universe, a new 
dignity and worth, as a son and heir, individually re- 
sponsible only to God his Father. His duty is to 
serve and obey God, for by obedience to the great 
commandments of love, goodness, holiness, he enters 
into actual fellowship with God. Thus is fulfilled the 
divine purpose, “that ye may be the children of your 
father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:45). 

Above all, this is a teaching of righteousness. In it 
are bound up all the elements of individual and social 
progress. Men will always marvel at its practical 


5 “The Ethical Teaching of Jesus,” p. 57 ff. 


THE TEACHING 69 


applicability to the complex problems of their own day 
—problems of which the Teacher could have no knowl- 
edge. Had He formulated rules, these would long ago 
have been outdated and discarded. But the teaching 
which has to do with the underlying and permanent 
needs of human life, which touches our humanity at 
its heart, can never be outdated or superseded. The 
principles which Jesus gave as guides of action in all 
human relations are recognized as those which best 
meet the needs of the world, and are in greater demand 
than ever before. If evidence were needed of the 
truth of the Teacher’s saying, “My words they are spirit 
and life,” it would be found incontestably in the fact 
that for two thousand years men have found their ini- 
tiative and program in these sayings, and never yet 
have they failed when put to the test. 


“Still in loving tenderness 

Doth the Master wait to bless; 

Still His touch upon the soul 
Bringeth balm and maketh whole; 
Still He comforts mourning hearts, 
Life and joy and peace imparts; 
Still the Friend of all is He, 

As of old by Galilee!” 


We have become aware that we cannot separate the 
Teacher from His teachings, for He was both opening 
to His pupils a way of life and actually walking with 
them in it. Much of the education in this School of 
Religion is learning by doing. This teaching is char- 
acteristic in that it demands that saying shall be coupled 
with acting. Ethical principles fruit at once in ethical 
action. “I have given you an example,” says Jesus, 
after that unique lesson of unselfish service in which 
He had washed the disciples’ feet, “that ye should do 


70 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


as I have done to you” (John 13:15). That was 
His method, teaching by example, injecting His own 
sympathetic personality into His educative process. 
Could they ever forget the principle of true master- 
ship? 

As we review the hours we have spent in this as- 
sociation with the incomparable Teacher and His 
School of the Twelve, we are conscious anew of the 
graciousness, the comforting assurances, the uplifting 
qualities of this teaching by Him who has the words 
of eternal life. What life-giving words to the trem- 
bling, shrinking woman, “Daughter, be of good cheer” 
(Matt. 9:22). With what gladness He must have 
said, after giving that lesson of the Divine care drawn 
from the ravens and the lilies, “Fear not, little flock, 
for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom” (Luke 12:32). What other term could 
have gathered them to His arms like that “little flock’? 
And how His heart must have throbbed with joy at the 
ability to speak those great words which have comforted 
and sustained countless multitudes in the trying and 
sorrowful hours of life: “Let not your heart be trou- 
bled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In‘my 
Father’s house are many mansions. . . . I go to pre- 
pare “ax place, “for! yout (John vw 14 3.123). o sbbe shane 
respecter of persons. He casts the spell of His purity 
and charm over even the sinful and the social outcasts, 
so that the record says, “Now all the publicans and sin- 
ners were drawing near unto him to hear him” (Luke 
15:1). He dealt plainly and honestly with them and 
they honored and believed in Him. His teaching is 
full of love, trust, faith, hope and joy, of all that makes 
for righteousness and the abundant life which He came 
to give to men (John 10: 10). 


THE TEACHING 71 


But there should be no mistake at this point. This 
is no spineless, soft and flabby teaching. Jesus was 
the originator of reforms, and knew what it was to 
deal with unrighteous conditions and unrighteous men. 
We have missed the heart of His teaching if we have 
not realized that its keynote is sincerity. He tells men 
the truth, and the whole truth. While he points to the 
straight gate and narrow way that leads unto life, He 
also warns of the wide gate and broad way that leads 
unto destruction (Matt. 7: 13,14). This gracious and 
sympathetic, loving and compassionate Teacher can 
also be inexorably stern, righteously angry. Since He 
was the soul of sincerity, He was in deadly conflict with 
the hypocrites. The sins that He most severely con- 
demns are not those of appetite or passion, not those 
which are most commonly named, but the sins which 
come from within, the “‘better-than-thou” attitude, the 
moral perversions which lead to self-deception, pride 
and self-righteousness. The Pharisees exemplified 
these vices which aroused His fiery indignation as He 
witnessed their oppressions and false assumptions and 
deceptions. His denunciations and parables made the 
truth known to them, and in return they took His 
life. 

Nowhere perhaps is the Teacher more self-revealing 
than in the last meeting when He opens His heart to 
those who have shared His life for three years that 
have no parallel in our human history. In what more 
beautiful light could we behold Him than in that inner 
circle of His pupils, when in the closing moments He 
says to them, and through them to all sincere learners 
who should come after them, those wonderful words: 


Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; 
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. 


72 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy 
may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. 

This is my commandment, that ye love one another, 
even as I have loved you. 


Surely we have not been so long in this high company 
without absorbing something of its spiritually quicken- 
ing atmosphere; without gaining a new sense of the 
truth that the commanding quality of this Teacher, 
underlying all His teaching and acts, is Love—the 
Love that dominated His life and carried Him to the 
cross as the supreme manifestation of the heart of God 
to humanity. Nor can we have failed to catch some- 
thing of His spirit that will abide with us, and a pro- 
found consciousness of His personality that will en- 
rich our days and ennoble our lives. This has been a 
blessed experience, which we may deepen and enlarge if 
we will, not only as we carry forward our present 
studies in His matchless Teaching, but also in the 
future as we continue to grow in His acquaintance 
and in the happy fellowship that is promised to all 
who hear His knock at the door of the heart and open 
to Him. We share in the feeling of Washington Glad- 
den: 

“O Master, let me walk with Thee 
In lowly paths of service free; 


Tell me Thy secret; help me bear 
The strain of toil, the fret of care. 


“Teach me Thy patience; still with Thee 
In closer, dearer company; 
In work that keeps faith sweet and strong; 
In trust that triumphs over wrong; 


“In hope that sends a shining ray 
Far down the future’s broadening way; 
In peace that only Thou canst give,— 
With Thee, O Master, let me live.” 


PART TWO: The Teaching of Jesus 


CHAPTER ONE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING GOD 


When He walked the fields He drew 
From the flow’rs and birds and dew 
Parables of God; 
For within His heart of love 
All the soul of man did move, 
God had His abode. 
—Stopford A. Brooke. 


The first thing Jesus had to do, as a Teacher, was to 
induce men to rethink God. To see God, to know God—that 
is what Jesus means. To know that He is ours, to see Him 
smile, to realize that H@ is a real Father with a father’s 
heart—that is His teaching. Those who learn His secret 
enjoy God in reality. Wherever they see God with the eyes 
of Jesus, it is joy and peace. For Him God is real, living 
and personal.—T. FR. Glover. 


The word which Jesus applied to God was Father. Only 
occasionally in the long sweep of the ages had a soul here 
and there ventured to apply to Deity a name so familiar and 
sweet, but Jesus of Nazareth always thinks and speaks of 
God as Father. How much He has to teach us at this 
point—Charles E. Jefferson. 


God, said Jesus, is Spirit, and it is a definition of God 
which goes behind and beneath all the other names that are 
applied to Him. Christianity is essentially the religion of the 
Spirit. It was so to Jesus; it was so to St. Paul; and it 
should be so to us.—L. P. Jacks. 


Loyalty to Jesus compels us to begin with Him. If He is 
the Way, we are not justified in taking half a dozen other 
roads, and using Him as one path among many. We ask 
ourselves what was the highest inspiration of Jesus, what was 
the Being to whom He responded with His obedient trust 
and with whom He communed. ... Our highest inspirations 
come to us from Jesus, and He is, therefore, God’s self- 
unveiling to us, God’s ‘“Frankness,”’ His Word made Flesh. 
—Henry Sloane Coffin. 


PART TWO: T'he Teaching of Jesus 


CHAPTER ONE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
GOD 


To know God is the most important of all knowledge. 
Our idea of God molds our character and shapes our 
conduct. No other idea has such sway as this over 
our lives. What God is to us determines what we will 
be for God and our fellow men. Upon a true and 
clear conception of God depends the reality of our 
religion and its power. It is vital therefore to have a 
true idea of God, and where shall we go to find it if not 
to the Son of God, who came to incarnate and reveal 
Him (John 14:9). This is assuredly the most nat- 
ural thing to do; yet it is one of the anomalies of 
Christian history that the men who have written our 
theologies and formulated our systems of doctrine have 
so seldom followed this course. Instead of making 
Jesus Christ the primary source of knowledge, He has 
too often been made secondary or tributary, and some- 
times practically neglected. In this study we hold Him 
first and all others secondary or supplementary. Rev- 
erently we come to the Supreme Teacher for our knowl- 
edge of God, as of all the essential Christian truths. 
We may be confident that He whose unique claim it 
was “that no man knoweth the Father save the Son 
and he to whom the Son will reveal Him’ (Matt. 


11:27), will not fail to give us a sufficient and satis- 
75 


76 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


fying conception. Nor does He; and in the light of 
His revelation all other teaching must be interpreted 
and judged. 

Coming now directly to the teaching of Jesus con- 
cerning God, we note at once how He differs from 
other teachers in approaching the subject. Where they 
commonly begin with definition and argument, that 
is not at all His method. He offers no argument 
to prove the existence of God—He simply assumes it. 
That is as basal a fact.as His own existence. He gives 
no list of the Divine attributes—they will appear as He 
introduces them in illustration. He has no definitions, 
such as “The Power outside ourselves that makes for 
righteousness.” He makes His own a single word, 
Father, and puts it all in that. His teaching comes 
out of living fellowship, out of a deepening intimate 
sense of sonship, and is therefore always positive and 
free from any suggestion of doubt or indefiniteness. 
His words carry the axiomatic note of self-evidencing 
truth. As God is real to Him, so He would make God 
real to all. And it is true that since Jesus lived and 
taught, our world has been a new one and God a nearer 
Being to man. As to His teaching, Professor Glover 
has put it finely in the sentence: “I think it would be 
tight to say that Jesus puts before us no system of 
God, but rather suggests a great exploration, an inti- 
macy with the slow and sure knowledge that intimacy 
gives.” It is not system that we need here so much 
as the warmth and glow of life, and that we find. 

The first time that Jesus speaks of God, so far as 
recorded, is when in answer to His mother’s reproach- 
ful query, ‘Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? 
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing” 
(or as Moffatt phrases it, “Why have you behaved 


CONCERNING GOD 17 


like this to us?) He makes the enigmatical reply, 
“How is it that ye sought me? Know ye not that I 
must be about my: Father’s business?” or “in my 
Father’s house?” (Luke 2: 46-49). Here is the boy of 
twelve, with a possessive sense as remarkable as the 
consciousness that gave birth to the name, saying 
“My Father,” in a tone and with a naturalness that add 
to the astonishment and perplexity of the learned doc- 
tors of the Temple among whom He is sitting; who 
indeed have already been filled with wonder at His 
insight and answers during the days He has spent with 
them. And as He begins, so He closes with the same 
word, which sounds the keynote to His whole teaching. 
On the cross, as the earthly redemptive work is fin- 
ished, He exclaims, “Father, into thy hands I commend 
my spirit’ (Luke 23:46). The careful reader of the 
Gospels will not question that the consciousness of 
Fatherhood and Sonship was ever present in the mind 
of Jesus. 

And this brings us at once to the fact of infinite im- 
port that what Jesus did was so to use the word Father 
as to give mankind a new conception of God—a con- 
ception controlling in His own life, and fundamental 
to the establishment and final triumph of the Kingdom 
of God upon earth. It is true that Jesus did not orig- 
inate the name Father, as applied to God, and that we 
find the term in the Old Testament. But it is also 
true that Jesus first used it in such wise as to make it 
new and securely fix its place in human speech as the 
tenderest and most endearing name, expressing the 
relation of the Creator to His creatures in terms of 
affection, as that of a Father to His children. Every- 
body could understand this. No other name could 
bring God so close, no other could make so natural, 


/ 


78 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


clear and vivid our relation to Him. In the Old Testa- 
ment the term is found only a few times, and expresses 
relation to a people, as the head of a nation. Jesus 
places God in a fatherly relation to the individual, and 
represents Him as the Father of the human spirit. 
This is both new emphasis and new teaching. This 
conception of Jesus is absolutely original in that it 
brings God into direct relationship with each individual 
soul, without human intermediary, without medium of 
formal altar and sacrifice, without restriction of time 
or place. The Father is wherever His children are, 
and freely they may come to Him. Jesus makes the 
word Father nothing less than the vehicle of a supreme 
revelation. 


“QO Jesus, Lord, who cam’st to earth 
That men might see the Father’s face— 
How strong His love, how wide His grace— 
Thou art the Word of God.” 


Turning to the Gospels, we find that a collation of 
the utterances of Jesus concerning God is in itself - 
impressive and enlightening. Studied as a whole, 
these teachings not only furnish a clear idea of the 
character and attributes of God, but lead the student to 
place the emphasis where the Master placed it—a mat- 
ter of extreme importance in interpretation. Nor can 
the study fail to carry conviction as to the truths 
taught and their direct application to the individual life. 
The effect is cumulative, and brings out anew the spir- 
itual significance of the Teacher’s own characterization 
of His words as “spirit and life.”’ Here the human 
responds instinctively to the divine. The Teacher im- 
parts Himself to the taught. 

Going through the records, it is not idle curiosity that 


CONCERNING GOD 79 


leads us to note that Jesus speaks of Ged as Father 
(0 Iaryp) 168 times; as Theos (6 O¢0s, object of 
worship, corresponding to the Hebrew Elohim) ninety 
times ; as Lord ( Kupzos ), the Hebrew adon or adonai, 
six times; as “Him that sent me,’ seven times; as 
Holy Spirit (ro &yiov mv&dpua), ten times; as the 
Highest (ovpzoros, Luke 6:35), once. Analysis dis- 
closes that Theos is used three times in quotation, in 
the Temptation ; nine times in phrases of specific char- 
acter ; and not less than fifteen times as clearly synony- 
mous with Father, which leaves about sixty uses of 
the word as synonymous with the Elohim and Jahveh 
of the Jews. The significance of this analysis lies in the 
fact that it denotes the habitual thought of Jesus. In 
every instance but one in which His personal relation to 
God is involved Jesus uses the word Father. The excep- ’ 
tion is the quotation from the 22nd Psalm, the heart- 
breaking cry on the cross, in the Aramaic, “Elo, elot, 
lama sabachthani,”’ “My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). As Dr. H. R. Mackin- 
tosh says, “The recurrence of the sweet and deep name, 
Father, unveils the secret of His being. His heart is 
at rest in God.” Endless definition could not interpret 
God to us as does this one word on the lips of 
Jesus. 

The teaching proceeds by illustration drawn from 
life, the Master’s favorite method. In the second in- 
stance where Jesus speaks of God He stands at the 
threshold of His public ministry, a young man of 
thirty, in the radiant dawn of His world-changing mis- 
sion. The wilderness and the long fasting have not 
daunted His spirit. In reply to the Scripture-quoting 
Tempter He quotes back, “Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God;’ “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 


80 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 4:7, 10). 
The Hebrew word here is Elohim, the object of wor- 
ship. God is to be worshipped, not tried. That Jesus 
was familiar with the Hebraistic idea of God as taught 
in the Old Testament only makes it the more note- 
worthy that He does not limit Himself to the ancient 
conception, but from boyhood on employs His own 
distinctive and humanly revealing term. Thus it was 
the Son’s mission to declare the Father, and to put into 
that word the new content that alone could satisfy the 
yearnings of the human heart. Hence it comes about 
that in passing from the Old Testament to the Gospels 
of the New we find God called by what is practically a 
new name: the Jehovah and Lawgiver of Israel be- 
comes in the teaching of Jesus the Divine Father of 
mankind. ‘The God who is Love is made a living 
reality in the life of man. 

What this means to humanity is in part disclosed 
in that night interview with Nicodemus, the earnest 
seeker after truth, who has recognized that this is “a 
Teacher come from God” (John 3:2). After Jesus 
has made known to this learned “master of Israel” the 
essential requirement of the new spiritual birth as the 
condition of entrance into the kingdom of God, He 
testifies to His own knowledge of that which He has 
asserted (John 3:11), and then proclaims the infinite 
love of God in that wonderful saying which declares 
the gift of His only begotten Son (John 3:16, the 
“little Bible’), establishes the Son’s relationship, and 
discloses the Divine purpose of universal salvation, 
“that the world through him might be saved” (John 
3:17). The Son involves the idea of Father, and 
however Nicodemus might be mystified by the teach- 
ing of the new birth, he could not fail to catch the 


CONCERNING GOD 81 


meaning of Jesus as to God and Himself. The whole 
tenor of the teaching is love. It is not strange that 
Nicodemus should have been captivated and convinced 
by this ardent Teacher, whose personality was as ir- 
resistible as His words, which opened a new spiritual 
horizon to the religious ruler versed in tradition and 
the intricate regulations of an ecclesiastical system that 
had overlaid the Scriptures with the commandments of 
tiene Matters. O. Viark) 7:13) Phat) thecidearor 
love became germinant in Nicodemus’ heart is evident 
not only from his attempt to defend Jesus at a crucial 
moment (John 7:50), but from the fact that he came 
after the crucifixion to help embalm the body, and 
place it in the new tomb where the crucified Lord was 
laid (John 19: 39-41); forth from which He came in 
victory over death on the resurrection morning (John 
20% Matt, 28: 1-8; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:6).* 

Thus far the teaching has revealed God as the all- 
loving Father. Jesus now adds another vital truth, 
teaching it in a most unusual place to a single pupil, 
and one whom the Twelve least expected to find, for 
the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, and this 
was a Samaritan anda woman! They marveled but did 
not venture to question (John 4:27). When Jesus, 
wearied, rests by Jacob’s well near Sychar, while His 
pupils have gone away to get food, a woman comes to 
draw water and He asks for a drink, this leading to an 
interview and lesson. The idea of God as Father 
which He presents is wholly strange to the Samaritan 
woman, who knows only of the God of her fathers. 


1 Bible students differ as to whether this declaration belongs to 
the interview with Nicodemus, placing it at a later date in Jesus’ 
ministry. It is taken here in the relation in which the Gospel puts 
it. Its revelation is not affected in any event, and “John 3: 16” 
gives the keynote of the Gospel. 


82 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Then He seeks to enlighten her mind still further by 
explaining the meaning of true worship, transferring it 
from the familiar realm of time, form and place to 
that elusive one of spirit. Here is the scene, one of 
the most striking in the life of the Master and in all 
history, as Moffatt translates it: 

“Sir,” said the woman, “I see you are a prophet. 
Now our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, where- 
as you Jews declare the proper place for worship is at 
Jerusalem.” ‘Woman,’ said Jesus, “believe me, the 
time is coming when you will be worshipping the Father 
neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem. You are 
worshipping something you do not know; we are wor- 
shipping what we do know—for salvation comes from 
the Jews. But the time is coming, it has come already, 
when the real worshippers will worship the Father in 
spirit and in reality; for these are the worshippers that 
the Father wants. God is Spirit, and His worshippers 
must worship Him in Spirit and in reality” Ce 
4: 4-16). 

No wonder that the woman of Samaria failed to 
apprehend this profound truth, for has not the world, 
even that part of it which calls itself Christian, also 
failed largely to apprehend it, even to this day? How 
insistently still does the ritualistic and formalistic in 
our worship tend to obscure and supplant the plain 
teaching of Jesus as to the essential spiritual nature of 
worship, the free and untrammeled communication be- 
tween the Heavenly Father and His earthly child. 
This does not imply that formal services and consecrated 
places of worship are disapproved by the Master. In- 
deed, His practice with regard to the synagogue (Luke 
4:16 and elsewhere) and public worship bears wit- 
ness to the contrary. It means that the spiritual reality 


CONCERNING GOD 83 


must be maintained and that the emphasis must be kept 
where it belongs, so that the soul of man may enjoy 
that “liberty wherewith Christ makes free.” Jesus 
removed forever the traditional limitations of worship, 
making it as free as air, as natural as breathing, to the 
soul that has found its true relationship to God the 
Father. When the spirit of worship is present, God is 
there. He hears before we speak, if the thought and 
aspiration and desire are within us seeking utterance. 
When the spiritual is submerged in ritual and the 
freedom is cramped by form, our religion becomes a 
mechanism instead of a life, a habit instead of a real- 
ity. That worship is something quite distinct from 
mere verbal approach and lip-service Jesus makes clear 
in His answer to the scribes and Pharisees who com- 
plained that His disciples transgressed the tradition of 
the elders (Matt. 15:8-9). 

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus discloses certain 
attributes of God. Thus, in enjoining love to enemies 
He gives as the reason for such hitherto unheard of 
love and unselfishness, “that ye may be the children of 
your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun 
to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust. Be ye therefore perfect, 
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 
5:45, 48). Impartial kindness, goodness, merciful- 
ness—these are traits of the Divine character. “Be ye 
therefore merciful, even as your Father is merciful” 
(Luke 6:36). The lessons of God’s providence, His 
care for His children which should expel all anxiety, 
are exquisitely set forth (Matt. 6: 25-33). Equally 
plain is the teaching that entrance into the kingdom of 
heaven is conditioned on doing the will of God (Matt. 


Wine Wy: 


84 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


The parables contain many lessons touching on the 
love, care and patient tenderness of God, His regard 
for the individual even down to the least important rela- 
tions, and His unceasing yearning after His erring and 
wandering children. That matchless parable of the 
Prodigal Son will forever disclose the Father-heart of 
God to human kind, the ready forgiveness for the 
penitent, and the glad welcome to the Father’s house 
(Luke 15:11-32). What multitudes of prodigals it 
has brought to themselves and then home! 

The parable of the Lost Sheep answers that crucial 
question, ‘Does God love me?” Jesus says that He 
does, and draws the picture of the recovery of the lost 
sheep by the tender Shepherd, with the striking analogy 
of “the joy in heaven in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repenteth.” ‘We can be- 
lieve in such joy when God made the world,’ says 
Professor Glover, “‘but can we believe that there was 
the same joy in the presence of God yesterday when 
a coolie gave his heart to God? Jesus does. That is 
the central thing, it seems to me, in His teaching about 
God—that God cares for the individual to an extent 
far beyond anything we could think possible. If we 
can wrestle with that central thought and assimilate it, 
or as the old divine said, ‘appropriate’ it, make it our 
own, the rest of the Gospel is easy. But one can 
never manage it except with the help and in the com- 
pany of Jesus.” ? 

How could Jesus teach this infinite care of God 
for each of His children more forcibly? ‘Are not 
five sparrows sold for two farthings? and not one of 
them is forgotten in the sight of God. But the very 
hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: ye 


2“The Jesus of History,” p. 96. 


CONCERNING GOD 85 


are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6, 
7). “Consider the lilies, God clothes them; how much 
more shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith? Your 
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” 
(Luke 12:27-30). What greater assurance could 
Jesus give? How could He bring God closer to us? 
By parable and precept He introduces us into the pres- 
ence of a real Father with a heart full of love for us, 
and tries to make us comprehend that we too, like 
Himself, may have a living relation with the living 
God. He implores men to “Have faith in God” (Mark 
11:22); “Be not afraid, only believe’ (Mark 5: 36). 

But in the parables Jesus also teaches other attributes, 
such as justice and righteousness. Love is not true 
love that is not just, even as justice is not true justice 
that is not merciful. The parables show how the holy 
and just God must deal with those who place them- 
selves out of harmony with His will. We see what 
happened to the foolish farmer, with his false philosophy 
of life which forgot God in the pride of his too many 
goods stored up (Luke 12: 16-21). We note the fate 
that overtook the servant who misused the talents en- 
trusted to him for service (Matt. 24:24); that befell 
those who made light of the invitation to the marriage 
feast for the king’s son (Matt. 22: 1-7); and those 
wicked husbandmen who beat and killed the servants 
and finally the son of the owner of the vineyard 
(Mark 12: 1-12). Jesus makes it clear that those who 
deserve punishment shall not escape it, while emphasiz- 
ing the fact that God does not desire that any should 
through their own wilful sin and disobedience bring 
upon themselves His righteous judgment; in His ef- 
fort to prevent it even sending His own Son “‘to seek 
and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19: 10). 


86 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


In the teaching of Jesus the Fatherhood of God is 
individual, universal, unconditioned by race or nation- 
ality. God is Father to all His children, has created 
them with capacity to know and serve Him and enjoy 
His love and protecting care, and intends all to enter 
into the joy of full sonship. But while this is the 
Father’s relation to His child, the child has something 
to do to complete the relationship, The child must 
share the Father’s ideals, aims and spirit, since the 
relation is spiritual and ethical, not physical. As Dr. 
A. B. Bruce says, Jesus’ teaching “concerned both sin- 
ners and saints, and was proclaimed to all on highway 
or in market place, irrespective of social or moral 
antecedents (Luke 15:1, 2). But the Fatherhood of 
God, as announced by Jesus, while having reference to 
all, does not mean the same thing for all. God cannot, 
any more than earthly parents, be a Father to His 
prodigal children to the same effect as to sons who dwell 
in His house and regard Him with trust, reverence and 
love. The full benefit of Divine Fatherhood can only 
be experienced where there is a spiritual attitude and 
spiritual receptivity. The Father’s will to bless may 
be frustrated by unbelief or alienation.’ This is fully 
illustrated in our earthly relationships. A father 
wishes his son to go to college and receive the advan- 
tages of liberal education. He provides all the means, 
but the son refuses. The father cannot compel the son 
to take the advantages or to educate himself. He is 
a son still, however disappointing and derelict. So 
with the Heavenly Father and His wilful children. 
Jesus shows that the unfilial conduct of the Prodigal 
Son did not destroy the fatherly relation and that love 
and forgiveness are ever ready for the penitent wan- 
derer (Luke 15: 20-24). But Jesus makes spiritual 


CONCERNING GOD 87 


rebirth the condition of entrance into the sonship of 
the kingdom (John 3:3). He teaches in His own life 
what this sonship means to those who have close fel- 
lowship with God; and He makes the test of member- 
ship in the Divine family the doing of the Father’s 
will (Matt. 12:50). Making plain the Father’s love 
for all, He makes equally plain the special paternal 
providence exercised over those who have by faith and 
obedience become members of His new community, the 
kingdom He came to establish on earth. The disciples 
need have no anxiety about temporal affairs, the 
Heavenly Father will take care of such things. 
Theirs to care for the higher things of the spirit, the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6: 31, 
33). Fatherly love and care—this is the persistent 
teaching of Jesus. And this revelation of the Father- 
hood of God is a vital factor in the new revelation 
which Jesus made. This brings God immediately into 
our lives, as a Person and a reality. And as a recent 
writer says, “The interpretation of life begins in God, 
and its revelation ends in Him.” 

Here is the secret of Jesus, revealed in His teaching 
and life—awareness of the presence of the Father. 
He saw the divineness of the world as none other ever 
saw it, because of this consciousness. He revealed, not 
a God throned outside the world, with only a supernat- 
ural and spasmodic connection with His creatures, but 
a God both transcendent and immanent in nature and 
man—One ever present, working through His Son and 
Spirit, indwelling, abiding, with the purpose to save, 
enlighten, guide, uphold, and keep His children to the 
end in an ascending spiritual progress toward the full 
realization of the glory of sonship and heirship to the 
inheritance of light and life eternal. How noble and 


88 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


inspiring this conception! And how unlike that which 
we obtain from any other source. 

This is a vital point. The loving Father revealed 
by Jesus differs widely from the conception of a God 
of stern justice and wrath. The difference is one both 
of character and attitude. The one grows out of the 
Law, the legal aspect of Judaism; the other out of the 
sending of the only begotten Son in proof of the in- 
finite love of the Father. The heathen conception of 
a vengeful deity who must constantly be appeased can- 
not be reconciled with that of Jesus; nor can that of 
many of the theologies that have regarded themselves 
as Christian. Between the idea of sovereignty as the 
primal characteristic of God and that of love there is a 
radical divergence. Since the primary idea of Jesus 
cannot be questioned in the light of His explicit teach- 
ing, with great joy we put first things first and seek to 
find for ourselves such absolute trust and rest as He 
had in the Father’s love and care. 

“What Jesus meant by the fatherly character of 
God,” says Professor Evans, “was revealed by what 
He Himself did in His social relations. He was pa- 
tient; He was long-suffering; He had compassion for 
the weak and the erring; He forgave the penitent; He 
healed the broken in heart; He rebuked sin; He loved 
even to the extent of suffering death rather than inflict- 
ing punishment. To have seen Jesus act and speak 
--was to have had a chance to know what kind of God 
rules in human history. To have known Jesus was to 
have seen the Father-heart of God” (John 14:9).° 

Passing in review the study thus far made of the 
teaching of Jesus concerning God, we find that we have 
reached a clear and new conception, in the light and 


3 Milton G. Evans, “What Jesus Taught,” p. 69. 


CONCERNING GOD 89 


sublimity of which our souls may expand. This con- 
ception is instinct with love. The Father’s heart is the 
center. God’s love is not circumscribed; His Father- 
hood is not limited. In love the world was created; 
in the atmosphere of divine love man has ever dwelt, 
however insensible he has proved to the fact, however 
slow to apprehend it. After the prodigal the Father’s 
heart yearns, and every effort possible in consistency 
with the freedom of the individual will is made to win 
him back to the Father’s side. And if at last the stub- 
born and wilful child refuses all influence and appeal, 
and brings upon himself the dreadful penalty due to 
the crowning guilt of rejecting the Father’s persistent 
love, .still the Father’s heart sorrows over the self- 
destruction of the lost one. This is the God revealed 
by the Son who came to manifest the Father. This is 
the conception that inspires to loving and self-sacrific- 
ing service, to worship and devotion. This is the char- 
acter of God that appeals to all that is noble and worth- 
fulin man. There is here no weakness, no minimizing 
of the qualities that are essential to holiness and right- 
eousness, no sentimental effacement of the awfulness 
of sin and the just punishment of it, no failure to real- 
ize that the Father is also Lawgiver and Judge. But 
on the other hand there is no obscuring of the Father’s 
love as the light that shines through all, and is forever 
luminous in the teaching of Jesus. 

When we have considered the words of Jesus, we 
have by no means finished with His teaching. Much 
as we learn from what He said, we learn yet more from 
the way He lived. “We know God our Father in 
His Son,” says Dr. Coffin; “every aspect of Jesus’ 
character unveils for us an aspect of the character of 
the Lord of heaven and earth.” As we company with 


90 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Him from the beginning of His unique ministry to 
its close, the deepest impression made upon us is His 
intimate association with His Father. He lives in 
the constant companionship of God. He delights in 
the beauties and glories of His Father’s world, and 
in the manifold phases and possibilities disclosed in the 
daily lives of His Father’s children. He does not talk 
about God as creator, nor use the many names with 
which the Old Testament made Him familiar. To 
Him the Father is the’supreme reality in a real world. 
This is God’s world and you cannot separate Him from 
it or from His children if you accept the life and teach- 
ing of Jesus. And as we see how naturally He talks 
and acts, as in the Father’s sight, doing not “mine own 
will but always those things that please him’ (John 
8:29), through the contagion of contact with Him we 
become aware of that same Divine presence over- 
shadowing our spirits, and realize with profound grati- 
tude how near and living the Son has made the Father 
to us; more than that, inviting us to abide in the 
Divine association which means trust and peace and 
joy such as the world can neither give nor take away 
(JON WAC es V7. (TROT) ac Ornt0d). Saye inate 
“who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
ChristinihloGorn gai6). 


“O God, within us and above, 

Close to us in the Christ we love, 
Through Him, our only guide and way, 
May heavenly life be ours to-day!” 


CHAPTER Two 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING HIMSELF, 


One touch upon His garment’s fringe 
Still heals the hurt of bitter years; 

Before Him yet the demons cringe, 
He gives the wine of joy for tears. 


—Margaret Sangster. 


Christ was the temple of God, because in Him God has 
most fully revealed Himself—Spinocza. 


Jesus is the personal fact of God in terms of human ex- 
perience. The Gospel is constituted in His Personality. He 
did not preach His opinions, He preached Himself. It is 
who He was and what He did that gives Reality to Jesus. 
Jesus finds men, and men in Jesus find the Reality of the 
personal God.—J. H. Chambers Macaulay. 


The time will never come when we shall not relish the 
study of this man. He is the way to God. It is impossible 
to become too familiar with the way. He is the express image 
of the Father’s person. The more we study Him the richer _ 
is our knowledge of God. He has declared the Father. The 
more fully we understand Him the deeper we see into the 
heart of Deity—Charles E. Jefferson. 


Yes! He still lives, the divine Man and incarnate God, on 
the ever-fresh and self-authenticating records of the Gos- 
pels, in the unbroken history of nineteen centuries, and in 
the hearts and lives of the wisest and best of our race; 
and there He will live forever. His person and work are 
the Book of Life, which will never grow old. He is the 
glory of the past, the life of the present, the hope of the 
future—Philip Schaff. 


CHAPTER Two 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
HIMSELF 


In this day when so much discussion centers in and 
around the Person of Jesus Christ, we do well to turn 
to the original sources and let Him speak for Himself. 
To all statements which are made about Him, and to 
all questions that may be asked, we shall then be 
able to say, “Thus saith the Master.’”’ And we shall 
also have the satisfaction of having reached a sound 
and scriptural basis for definite conclusions in a mat- 
ter of vital importance to ourselves. For it is not pos- 
sible to exhaust that question of perennial interest with 
which Jesus put the tempting Pharisees to silence, 
“What think ye of Christ?” (Matt. 22: 42). 

In grouping this teaching of Jesus concerning Him- 
self we shall also be continuing our study of His teach- 
ing concerning God, since at many points it is not pos- 
sible to draw a distinct dividing line. The unique rela- 
tionship between the Father and Son is too close for 
that. Nor can the self-witness of Jesus be limited to 
His words. His assumptions are not less striking than 
His assertions. His self-revelation is both direct and 
indirect, by word and attitude, by affirmation and 
character, by illustration and life. Without prejudg- 
ing what is to come, we can say here that nowhere 
else in human history is there to be found such a record 
and revelation as that to which we now give our 


thought. 
93 


g4 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


We shall confine our attention first to the sayings of 
Jesus, following as nearly as may be the order of the 
Gospel records. On the day after John the Baptist had 
borne witness to Jesus as the Lamb of God, and John 
and Andrew had spent some hours with Him (John 
1: 36-40), Jesus starts for Galilee, and finding Philip, 
says to him, “Follow me” (John 1:43). This was the 
first of those compelling calls to personal service which 
are inexplicable on ordinary grounds. That Jesus was 
at once recognized as» different from ordinary men is 
shown by the fact that Andrew, when he found his 
brother Simon, said to him, ‘““‘We have found the Mes- 
siah” (John 1:41); and by the similar statement of 
Philip to Nathanael, “We have found him of whom 
Moses and the prophets wrote in the law, Jesus of 
Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45). And while 
Nathanael doubted whether any good thing could come 
out of Nazareth, yet when he had seen Jesus and heard 
himself characterized as “‘an Israelite, indeed, in whom 
there is no guile,” he said, “Rabbi (Teacher), thou art 
the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.” To 
which Jesus makes His first astonishing affirmation 
concerning Himself, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven 
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending 
upon the Son of man” (John 1: 46-51). This desig- 
nation, ‘Son of Man,” here applied to Himself for the 
first time, is a favorite with Jesus.* 

We next see Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem, as- 
suming a remarkable proprietorship in ““My Father’s 
house’ as He scourges the traders out (John 2: 14- 
16), and uttering the saying about destroying and 

1 For a scholarly treatment of the significance of the terms ‘Son 
of Man and Son of God, as used by and applied to Jesus, see 


dies in the Inner Life of Jesus,” by Principal A. E. Garvie, 
p. 304 ff. 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 95 


rebuilding the Temple that was scoffed at by the Jews 
and only recalled and understood by His disciples after 
His resurrection (John 2: 19-22). It was inevitable 
that He should have been an enigma and a paradox; 
nor has He ceased to be that to multitudes to-day as 
in all past days since He came. 

It is to Nicodemus that Jesus first opens the gospel 
of regeneration and salvation, with Himself as the 
central figure. Whether the interview ended with the 
declaration concerning the Son of Man (John 3:13), 
or continued through to verse 21, Nicodemus had a 
revelation of the change that must come to his Phari- 
saic party and to all who would see the kingdom of 
God. The passage in John’s Gospel which follows 
(3: 14-21), containing the verse known as the “little 
Bible’ (John 3:16), coupling in Himself the names 
“Son of Man” and “Son of God,” is one of the most 
wonderful in the Gospels, and should be carefully stud- 
ied. Using an incident in the history of His people 
that every hearer would instantly appreciate and under- 
stand, Jesus here explicitly declares that He is the Son 
of Man; that He must be lifted up, as Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, in order that whoso- 
ever believeth may in Him have eternal life; that 
God so loved the world that He gave His only begot- 
ten Son to open the gates of eternal life to whosoever 
believeth; that God sent not His Son to judge the 
world but to save it. (World redemption to be wrought 
through Him.) ‘Never man so spake.’”’ Unless it is 
more than man that speaks, the words are such as 
would naturally lead His family to seek to lay restrain- 
ing hold on Him, saying, “He is beside himself” 
(Mark 3: 21), or “He is out of his mind.” 

Not less notable is the acknowledgment to the woman 


96 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


of Samaria of His Messiahship, a fact which for His 
own reason He wished to keep in the background, and 
which now was disclosed to the woman alone. It was 
when she said, “‘I know that Messiah cometh; when he 
is come, he will declare unto us all things,” that “Jesus 
saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he” (John 
4:26). When His disciples came back from the city 
with food and pressed Him to eat, He said, “I have 
meat to eat that ye know not of. . . . My meat is to 
do the will of him that sent me and to accomplish his 
work” (John 4: 32-34). Not yet able to comprehend 
spiritual things, they simply wondered whether any- 
body had brought Him anything to eat. 

Mark the assumption of divine power in that word 
to the nobleman who besought Him to come to Caper- 
naum to save his child: “Go thy way; thy son liveth” 
(John 4:50), accompanied as it was by the exercise 
of the same miraculous power which made His ministry 
one of healing, with its “signs” reaching even to the 
raising of the dead. In His home town of Nazareth, 
entering into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as His 
custom was, He opens the Roll to the place where the 
prophet Isaiah foretells the anointing of one who shall 
fulfill the predictions concerning the Messiah, and in 
words of grace which cause wonder declares, ‘“This 
scripture has this day been fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 
4: 18-21). But they ask, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 
and because of His classing Himself as a prophet and 
teaching unpalatable.truths they cast Him out of the 
city. 

Then comes the case of the palsied man, and the 
charge of blasphemy against Jesus because He claims 
the power to forgive sins. “Who can forgive sins but 
God alone?” Very well, says Jesus, “whether is it 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 97 


easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, 
Arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son 
of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he said 
unto him that was palsied), I say unto thee, Arise, and 
take up thy couch and go to thy house’ (Mark 
2:7-9). There was no answer to this. They were 
all amazed, and glorified God, and were filled with 
fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day 
(Mark 2:12; Luke 5: 20-26). The scribes. and 
Pharisees were right in their idea that only God can 
forgive sins. If Jesus then had this power, there is 
but one fair inference from His words. 

One of the most remarkable of the declarations 
which Jesus made concerning Himself and His rela- 
tion to God followed upon the healing of the lame 
man at the pool. The Jews persecuted Him because 
He did these things on the Sabbath. Jesus answered 
them, as Moffatt translates it, ““As my Father has 
continued working to this hour, so I work too.” “But 
this only made the Jews the more eager to kill Him, 
because he not merely broke the sabbath but actually 
spoke of God as his own Father, thereby making 
himself equal to God” (John 5: 1-18). The remaining 
verses of this fifth chapter, together with John 7: 15- 
24, must be given due weight by those who are desirous 
to learn from His own lips the claims that Jesus makes 
for Himself. Turn to the Gospel and endeavor to 
realize the stupendous character of this utterance. 
Here we have the unqualified assertion that the Son 
can do nothing of His own accord but what He sees 
the Father doing, and then He does the same (ver. 19) ; 
that the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He 
is doing, and will show Him still greater deeds, to make 
you wonder: for as the Father raises the dead and 


98 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


makes them live, so the Son makes any one live whom 
He chooses (ver. 21, 22); that the Father judges no 
one but has committed all judgment to the Son, that 
all men may honour the Son even as they honour the 
Father: and he who does not honour the Son does not 
honour the Father who sent Him (ver. 23); that he 
who “‘listens to my word and believes Him who sent me 
has eternal life’’ and will incur no sentence of judgment 
(ver. 24) ; that the time is coming, has come, when the 
dead will listen to the-voice of the Son of God and live: 
for as the Father has life in Himself, so too he has 
granted the Son to have life in Himself, and to have 
authority to act as judge, since He is the Son of man 
(ver. 27) ; that a judgment time is coming for all, when 
the doers of good shall be raised to life and the doers 
of evil be raised for the sentence of judgment (ver. 
28-29); that “I can do nothing of my own accord; I 
pass judgment on men as I am taught by God, and my 
judgment is just because my aim is not my own will 
but the will of him who sent me” (ver. 30); that His — 
“works” are His testimony that the Father has sent 
Him, and that the Father has also borne testimony to 
Him, but this they have not known because they do 
not believe Him whom He sent, refusing to come to 
Him for life while imagining they possess eternal life - 
in the Scriptures which testify of Him (ver. 36-40) ; 
that “Here am I, come in the name of my Father, and 
you will not accept me” (ver. 43) ; that “if you had be- 
lieved Moses you would have believed me, for he wrote 
of me; but if you do not believe what he wrote, how 
will you ever believe what I say?” (ver. 46-47). 
Then, when the amazed Jews asked, “How can this 
uneducated fellow manage to read?” Jesus replied, 
“My teaching is not my own but his who sent me; 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 99 


any one who chooses to do his will, shall understand 
‘whether my teaching comes from God or whether I 
am talking on my own authority” (7:15-17; M.). 
Here Jesus definitely ascribes the source of His teach- 
ing and authority to the Father, from whom and for 
whom He has come to bring the Divine message and 
the gift of life eternal. We have given this detailed 
analysis in order that the startling significance of the 
statements may be impressed upon our minds as our 
conclusions from the study are being formed. 

Going through the cornfields, Jesus tells the Phari- 
sees, sticklers for the traditional Sabbath laws, that 
“the Son of man is lord of the sabbath” (Matt. 12:8; 
Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5); in other words, His own 
lawmaker, a “greater than the temple” (Matt. 12:6). 
All through the Sermon on the Mount He speaks with 
the voice of absolute authority—“I say unto you”— 
meaningless if He were not what He claimed to be. 
In giving His test, “By their fruits ye shall know them,”’ 
Jesus assumes the power of admission to or exclusion 
from the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 7: 20-21). In 
His message to John, who is in prison, the things 
which He tells John’s disciples to describe to their mas- 
ter are those which demand supernatural power (Matt. 
11: 2-6), and which would be proof to John that Jesus 
was “He that should come.” 

To the crowds that followed Him across the lake 
to Capernaum, after their miraculous feeding, and 
who asked what they must do to work the works of 
God, Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that ye be- 
lieve on him whom he sent” (John 6: 24-29). And 
when they asked a “sign,” that they might believe, 
citing the fact that their fathers ate manna in the desert, 
Jesus answered with strange words. He said that His 


100 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Father gave the true bread from heaven, and that the 
bread of God is He who came down from heaven and 
giveth life to the world. And when they said, “Lord, 
evermore give us this bread,’ He declared, “I am the 
bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger ; 
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I 
said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe 
not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; 
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own 
will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the 
Father’s will who sent me, that every one who seeth 
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting 
life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” 

What followed was natural. The Jews murmured 
at Him for saying He was the bread which came down 
from heaven. They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son 
of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How 
is it that he saith, I came down from heaven?” Then 
Jesus told them to stop murmuring, and repeated His 
declarations. “‘No man can come to me,” He said, 
“except the Father who hath sent me draw him; every 
man that hath learned of the Father cometh unto me; 
not that any man hath seen the Father, save he who is | 
of God, he hath seen the Father; he that believeth on 
me hath everlasting life; I am that bread of life... 
the living bread which came down from heaven, that 
a man may eat thereof, and not die; the bread that I 
will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of 
the world.” And when the Jews strove among them- 
selves over these mystifying words, Jesus followed 
them with others, harder yet to understand: “Except 
ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his 
blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh 
and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. . . . As the 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 101 


living Father hath sent me, even he shall live by me. 
This is that bread which came down from heaven: not 
as your fathers did eat manna and are dead: he that 
eateth of this bread shall live forever’ (John 6: 30- 
58). 

This he said as he taught in the synagogue at Caper- 
naum; and many of his disciples, on hearing it, said, 
“This is hard to take in! Who can listen to talk like 
this?” Jesus, inwardly conscious that his disciples 
were murmuring at it, said to them, “So this upsets 
you? Then what if you were to see the Son of man 
ascending to where he formerly existed? What gives 
life is the Spirit: flesh is of no avail at all. The words 
I have uttered to you are spirit and life.”’ After that 
many of his disciples drew back and would not asso- 
ciate with him any longer. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 
“You do not want to go, too?’ Simon Peter answered 
him, ‘Lord, whom are we to go to? You have the 
words of eternal life, and we believe, we are certain, 
that you are the holy One of God” (John 6: 60-63, 
66-69; M.). Compare the record of this wonderful 
self-revelation in the Authorized and Revised versions, 
and let us try to comprehend these claims—these hard 
sayings which take us into the realm of mysticism, and 
which could be uttered by none save one who declared 
Himself to be the Son of God, whose life and works 
bore witness to His truth and power. 

When with the Twelve in Cesarea-Philippi, Jesus 
makes to them the first definite acknowledgment of His 
Messiahship, in response to Simon Peter’s answer, 
“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” say- 
ing, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh 
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
which is in heaven” (Matt. 16: 13-17). He still bids 
them, however, to tell this to no man, and begins to 


102 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


teach them of the fate which He must undergo (Matt. 
16:21). After the transfiguration He charges Peter 
and James and John to tell no man what they had 
seen, “save when the Son of man should have risen 
again from the dead” (Mark 9:9), plainly foretelling 
what He foresaw. He repeated this as they abode in 
Galilee, but they understood not His saying, and they 
were afraid to ask Him about it (Luke 9: 44-45; Matt. 
V7 eee si 

Teaching openly in the Temple, at the Feast of 
Tabernacles, Jesus declares: “I am not come of myself, 
but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. I 
know him; because I am from him, and he sent me” 
(John 7:28-29). Many of the multitude believed 
on Him and the Pharisees sent officers to take Him. 
Jesus therefore said, “Yet a little while 1 am with you, 
and I go unto him that sent me” (John 7:33). Note 
the constant recurrence of this phrase,“ him that sent 
me.” Speaking unto the Pharisees again, Jesus pro- 
claims Himself to be “the light of the world” ; and when 
they accused Him of bearing witness of Himself 
which was not true, He said, “I am not alone, but I 
and the Father that sent me. . . . If ye knew me, ye 
would know my Father also” (John 8:12, 19). And 
after further statements regarding their peril of dying © 
in their sins because of disbelief in Him, He said, 
“When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall 
ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, 
but as the Father taught me, I speak these things. 
And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me 
alone’ (John 8: 28-30). 

The remaining verses of this eighth chapter of 
John’s Gospel are of the same remarkable character, 
containing sayings that we cannot imagine coming from 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 103 


other lips than our Lord’s. Speaking to Jews who had 
believed His recent words, He makes assertions like 
these: “If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my 
disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free;’ which leads to a discussion by 
men who pride themselves upon being Abraham’s seed 
and never yet in bondage. “If God were your Father, 
ye would love me: for I came forth and am come from 
God; for neither have I come of myself, but he sent 
me.” “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” “I 
honour my Father and ye dishonour me.” “It is my 
Father that glorifieth me; of whom ye say that he is 
your God; and ye have not known him: but I know 
him, and keep his word. Your father Abraham re- 
joiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.” 
And when the Jews said, as they picked up stones to 
throw at Him, “Thou art not fifty years old, and 
Abraham hath seen thee?’ Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I 
say unto you, Before Abraham was born, I am” 
(John 8: 31-50). 
“Once again, O Man of Wonder, 
Let Thy voice be heard! 
Speak as with a voice of thunder; 


Drive the false Thy roof from under, 
Teach Thy priests Thy word.” 


After the Seventy returned from their missionary 
tour and made their glad report, Jesus “thrilled with 
joy at that hour in the Holy Spirit,’ and offered a 
prayer of praise to the “Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth” ; then turning to the disciples, made one of the 
most astounding of all His claims. The words are the 
same in Matthew and Luke: “All things have been 
delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth 
the Son, save the Father; neither doth any one know 


104 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the 
Son willeth (or chooseth) to reveal him’ (Matt. 
Rey tL Ake) 10 seer 

Speaking privately to the Twelve He said, “Behold, 
we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written 
by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be 
accomplished” (Luke 18:31). Then He foretells ex- 
actly what is to happen, but they do not get His mean- 
ing, not being able to see their Master, the Messiah, 
in any role but that of conquering King, whose glory 
is to be revealed as He comes with His legions to break 
the power of Rome and set up once more the throne of 
David. 

Another remarkable incident occurs in connection 
with the healing of the man born blind—a story told 
dramatically in the ninth chapter of John. After the 
Pharisees had closed their interview with the man, 
whose unanswerable statement was that whereas he 
was blind, now he could see, they expelled him for 
presumption in assuming to teach them. Jesus heard 
they had expelled him, and on meeting him said, 
“Dost thou believe on the Son of God?’ “Who is 
he, Lord, that I might believe on him?” And Jesus said 
unto him, “Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that 
talketh with thee.” And he said, “Lord, I believe;” 
and he worshipped him (John 9: 35-38). Then Jesus 
uttered one of His enigmatical sayings: “It is for 
judgment that I have come into this world, to make 
the sightless see, to make the seeing blind.” The 
Pharisees asked if they were blind, receiving another 
enigma in reply. Then again they were divided over 
His words. A number of them said, “He is mad. Why 
listen to him?’ Others said, ‘““These are not a mad- 
man’s words. Can a madman open the eyes of the 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 105 


blind?” (Matt. 10: 19-21). So it has gone on through 
the centuries, many men of many minds and interpreta- 
tions “divided over his words’’; many of them illustrat- 
ing the truth of Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees, “If ye 
were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We 
see; therefore your sin remaineth” (John 9: 41). 

In the parable of the Good Shepherd there are more 
of the sayings which are only explicable on the basis 
of a speaker consciously clothed with Divine authority 
and power. For example: “I know mine own, and 
mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me 
and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for 
the sheep.” “Therefore doth my Father love me, be- 
cause I lay down my life, that I may take it again. 
No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of 
myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again. This commandment received I 
from my Father” (John 10: 1-18). 

This was at Jerusalem during the feast of dedication ; 
it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the Temple, 
in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered round 
Him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us 
in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 
Jesus replied, “I have told you, but you do not believe; 
the works that I do in the name of my Father testify 
to me, but you do not believe because you do not belong 
to my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, and I know 
them and they follow me; and I give them eternal life; 
they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out 
of my hand. My Father who gave me them is greater 
than all, and no one can snatch them out of my Father’s 
hand. I and my Father are one.’ Then the Jews took 
up stones again to stone Him, and when He asked for 
which of the many good works He had shown them 


106 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


from the Father they stoned Him, they retorted, ‘““We 
mean to stone you, not for a good work, but for blas- 
phemy, because you, a mere man, make yourself God.” 
They had no doubt what His words had meant. Jesus, 
with an appeal to their law, answered, “Do you mean 
to tell me, whom the Father consecrated and sent into 
the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, I am 
the Son of God? If I am not doing the works of my 
Father, do not believe me; but if I am, then believe the 
works, though you will not believe me—that you may 
learn and understand that the Father is in me and I am 
in the Father.’’ Once more they tried to arrest Him, 
but He escaped their hands and went across Jordan, 
back to the spot where John had baptized at first. And 
many came and believed on Him, saying, “All things 
that John spake of this man were true’ (John 10: 2- 
42). It is necessary to take this whole passage, in order 
to realize what Jesus is teaching concerning Himself, 
at the peril of His life. 

As the end is approaching, Jesus tells His disciples 
that “the hour has come for the Son of man to be 
glorified” (John 12:23). Moffatt’s translation gives 
new meaning to the words of Jesus in the verses which 
follow (27, 28). “ ‘My soul is now disquieted. What 
am I to say, “Father, save me from this hour”? Nay, 
it is something else that has brought me to this hour: 
I will say, “Father, glorify thy name.’ Then came a 
voice from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify 
it again.’ Compare this with the Authorized Version 
and see what a different meaning a question mark can 
make. Then follows that marvelous declaration, “But 
I, when I am lifted from the earth, will draw all men 
unto myself.’ This he said, signifying what kind of 
death he was to die. The people answered, ‘““We have 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 107 


learned from the Law that the Christ is to remain for- 
ever; what do you mean by saying that the Son of 
man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?’ 
(John 12: 32-34). Instead of a direct answer, Jesus 
said to them, “The Light will shine among you for 
a little longer yet... . While you have the Light, 
believe in the Light, that you may be sons of the Light.” 
And Jesus cried aloud, “He who believes in me be- 
lieves not in me but in him who sent me, and he who 
beholds me beholds him who sent me. I have come as 
light into the world, that no one who believes in me 
may remain in the dark. If any one hears my words 
and does not keep them, it is not I who judge him; 
for I have not come to judge the world but to save the 
world. He who rejects me and will not receive my 
words has indeed a judge; the word that I have spoken 
will judge him on the last day, for I have not spoken 
of my own accord—the Father who sent me, he it was 
who ordered me what to say and what to speak. And 
[ know his orders mean eternal life. Therefore when I 
speak, I speak as the Father has told me.” With these 
words Jesus went away and hid from them (John 
12:35, 36; 44-50). But for all His miracles they 
did not believe on Him, though a number of the author- 
ities (chief rulers) believed but would not confess it 
for fear the Pharisees would put them out of the syna- 
gogue; for they preferred the approval of men to the 
approval of God (John 12:37-43; M.). 

Jesus identifies Himself as the manifestation and rep- 
resentative, the Son as the “express image” of the 
Father, in the words, ‘“He who beholds me beholds him 
who sent me” (John 12:45). This saying should be 
taken with the words spoken to Thomas and Philip in 
that last memorable interview before the betrayal. 


108 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


When Thomas asks, “How know we the way?” Jesus 
answers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no 
one cometh unto the Father but by (or,through) me. 
If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father 
also: from henceforth ye know him and have seen 
him.” Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it 
sufficeth us.” Jesus says, “Have I been so long time 
with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? He that 
hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, 
Show us the Father? .. Believest thou not that I am in 
the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I 
say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father 
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me 
that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or 
else, believe me for the very works’ sake’ (John 
14: 5-11). And in the tender address that follows 
Jesus repeats this idea of the indwelling spirit and 
power of the Father again and again. It underlies and 
guarantees all the pronouncements and promises of that 
wonderful hour, in which He said, “I came out from 
the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave 
the world and go to the Father” (John 16:28). “I 
will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” 
“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, 
and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:18, 20). This 
is the first promise of the inclusion of the disciples with 
Himself and the Father in a spiritual unity made pos- 
sible by the Father’s love for those who love and keep 
the words of the Son (John 14: 21, 23). 

We cannot fail to note the clear distinction which 
Jesus makes between the Father and Himself, the Son. 
While He claims His unique relationship and assumes 
its prerogatives reverently and modestly, He freely 
admits His limitations and confesses Himself inferior 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 109 


to the Father in power, knowledge and character. He 
says to His disciples, “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice 
because I said, I go unto the Father, for the Father 
is greater than I” (John 14:28). “I can of myself do 
nothing, as | hear I judge’ (John 5:30). It is the 
Father, who sent Him, to whose will He is ever sub- 
missive; whose works He came to perform and who 
does “mighty works” through Him; whose words He 
speaks as He is taught; with whom He communes in 
prayer, and from whom He draws the spiritual strength 
which sustains Him in the world enterprise He has been 
sent and commissioned to establish. “I do always those 
things that please him’’—what a story that tells of the 
perfect life of a loving and reverent Son! Confessing 
ignorance, He says concerning His return that “of that 
day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which 
are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father’ (Mark 
13:32). Principal Garvie says, “It is of no common 
grace for a teacher to plead lack of knowledge before 
those who are learning of Him.” Jesus’ answer to the 
rich young ruler, “Why callest thou me good? None 
is good save One, even God” (Mark 8:18), is the 
mark not of a false humility or of moral imperfection, 
but of a keen consciousness, while under the stress of 
an unfinished and unparalleled task, of the Father’s 
glorious perfection, and of His own absolute depend- 
ence upon that Father’s unchanging love and power. 
But while Jesus thus always distinguishes Himself 
from God the Father, He positively identifies Himself 
with the Son of God. “Abba, Father, all things are 
possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: yet, 
not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). 

In the intercessory prayer Jesus says: “Father, the 
hour has now come; glorify thy Son that thy Son 


110 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


may glorify thee, since thou hast granted him power 
over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom thou 
hast given to him. And this is eternal life, that they 
know thee, the only real God, and him whom thou hast 
sent, even Jesus Christ’ (John 17:1-3). To Peter, 
after the arrest in the Garden, He says, “The cup 
which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?” 
(John 18:11). When the high priest asks Him, “Art 
thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus says, 
“T am” (Mark 14:61-62). Matthew and Luke give 
His answer, ‘‘Thou hast said’ (Matt. 26:64; Luke 
22:70). All add the prediction, “Ye shall.see the Son 
of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming 
on the clouds of heaven;” the declaration either of “a 
truly divine man or a mad blasphemer,”’ which caused 
the high priest to tear his dress and cry out blasphemy, 
and the elders and council to pronounce His doom and 
spit in His face and buffet Him, crying, “Prophesy 
to us, you Christ! tell us who struck you!” (Matt. 
26:65-68). When Pilate asks Him if He is King of 
the Jews, the answer is the same, “Thou sayest” (Matt. 
ern Mark 15+ 2: 'lukegere)) | WhatiPilateminders 
stood is shown by the inscription which He had placed 
over the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the 
Jews” (John 19:19). ) 
The scoffers who passed by, as Jesus hung upon the 
cross, bore their witness to His claims, for they said, 
“Save thyself: if thou art the Son of God, come down 
from the cross.”” And the chief priests, with the scribes 
and elders, added theirs unwittingly when they cried in 
mockery, ““He saved others, but he cannot save him- 
self! He the ‘King of Israel’! Let him come down 
from the cross and we will believe in him! His trust 
is in God! Let God deliver him now if he cares for 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 111 


him’! He said he was the Son of God!” (Matt. 27: 
41-43 M.). In what absolute contrast the words spoken 
by Jesus in His dying agony, “Father, forgive them; 
for they know not what they do;” “Father, into thy 
hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46); and with 
these words He expired. 

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to Mary and 
said, “Touch me not; for I have not ascended yet to the 
Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, | 
ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God 
and your God” (John 20:17). Entering and standing 
among the disciples, who at first in affright supposed 
they beheld a spirit, He spoke peace to them, showed 
them His hands and feet, and said, ““As the Father hath 
sent me, so send I[ you,” and breathed on them, saying, 
“Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” Later He convinced 
Thomas, who had doubted, but who now witnessed, 
“My Lord and my God!” (John 20: 26-29). Then 
Jesus came to the eleven at the place He had appointed 
in Galilee and said, “All authority hath been given 
unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and 
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28: 26-30). And 
just before His parting blessing and ascension, He 
opened their minds that they might understand the 
Scriptures : that the Christ should suffer, and rise again 
from the dead the third day; and that repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in His name unto 
all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. “Ye are 
witnesses of these things. And behold, I send forth 
the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in 


112 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.” 
And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem 
with great joy (Luke 24: 45-52). 

Thus we have gathered from the Gospel records the 
sayings of Jesus concerning Himself and God. Their 
cumulative effect is most impressive. We have now to 
consider those amazing assertions which derive their 
importance and value from His assumption that He 
was the Son of God, sent by the Father into the world 
with a unique commission to reveal God and redeem 
men. Without such Divine authority and power vested 
in Him, such utterances would be regarded as those of 
an insane man or a pretentious deceiver, making mock- 
ery of human needs, hopes and aspirations. 

Take for example that invitation and promise which 
have probably been as often on human lips as any other 
words of Scripture, bringing an infinite sense of re- 
freshment and comfort to the countless souls worn with 
the heat and burden of the day: 


“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, 
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my 
burden is light” (Matt. 11: 28-30). 


Only He who could truthfully make such claims as 
we have been considering could speak such words as 
these. And human experience in all the generations 
since has proved them true, with a verdict of such 
range and sweep as cannot be explained away or 
evaded. Or take these further examples from Jesus’ 
lips: 


Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever 
will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 113 


If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; 
and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free. 

He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good 
cheer; I have overcome the world. 

I am come that they might have life, and that they might 
have it abundantly. 

Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, 
him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. 
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him also will I 
deny before my Father who is in heaven. 

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than 
me is not worthy of me. 

He that does not take up his cross and follow me is not 
worthy of me. 

If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himseli, take 
up his cross, and follow me. 

I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be 
saved. 

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 

Let your light so shine before men that they may see 
your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall 
become a well of water springing up unto eternal life. 

Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that 
the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every 
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father 
who is in heaven. 

He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth 
me receiveth him that sent me. 

No man can come unto me, except it be given him of the 
Father. 

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father 
with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man 
according to his works. 


114 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judg- 
ment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, 
even as they honour the Father. 

If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything 
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father 
which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. 

If any one is athirst, let him come to me and drink; he 
who believes in me—out of his body, as scripture says, 
streams of living water will flow. (Moffatt’s translation.) 

I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall 
not walk in darkness,-but shall have the light of life. 

Truly, truly, I say unto you, If a man keep my word he 
shall never see death. 

Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the 
Son of man cometh. 

Jesus said unto him (Bartimeus), Receive thy sight: thy 
faith hath made thee whole. 

If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I 
am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, 
him will the Father honour. 

Be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Teacher, and 
all ye are brothers. Neither be ye called masters: for one 
is your Master, even Christ. He who is greatest among 
you must be your servant. 

Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of 
him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in 
his own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy 
angels. 

Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in 
no wise enter into the kingdom of God. 

Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name 
receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him 
that sent me. 

So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not 
all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. 

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole 
world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall 
the end come. But he that endureth to the end shall be 
saved. 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 115 


. 


The declarations of the Sermon on the Mount, with 
their “I say unto you,” belong in the same category. 
“These are the most astounding and transcendent pre- 
tensions,’ says Dr. Schaff, “ever set up by any human 
being. . . . He makes them with perfect ease, free- 
dom and composure, as a native prince would speak of 
the attributes and scenes of royalty at his father’s court. 
He never apologizes or explains; He sets them forth as 
self-evident truths, which need only to be stated to 
challenge the belief and submission of mankind. Now, 
suppose a purely human teacher, however great and 
good; suppose a Moses or Elijah, a John the Baptist, 
an Apostle Paul or John—not to speak of any unin- 
puired Wteachelys 0." tOusay 21) lan tev Lignt) On tie 
World;’ ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; ‘T 
and the Father are one; and to call upon all men, 
‘Come unto me;’ ‘Follow me,’ that you may find ‘life’ 
and ‘peace,’ which cannot be found elsewhere: would it 
not create a universal feeling of pity or indignation? 
No human being on earth could set up the least of these 
pretensions without being set down at once as a mad- 
man or blasphemer. But from the mouth of Christ 
they seem perfectly natural.” ? 

Again we must say, “Never man so spake.” But 
speaking is not all. As we have seen, the words and 
works of Jesus cannot be separated. Hence we must 
take His miracles into account, since these also bear 
witness concerning Himself, and may be regarded as 
His teaching in action. He does not use the word 
“miracles,” but speaks of His deeds as “signs,” “pow- 
ers” or “works,” once only as “wonders” (John 4: 
48). The Gospel narratives show how profoundly 
they impressed His divine character upon the people, 


2“The Person of Christ,” by Philip Schaff, p. 87. 


116 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


who asked, “What wisdom is this that is given unto 
him, that even such mighty works are wrought by 
his hands?” (Mark 6:2). As the Great Physician 
He was able to relieve genuine need and suffering. He 
refused to perform “signs” on demand as credentials 
of His mission or authority, telling the questioning 
scribes and Pharisees that a wicked and adulterous gen- 
eration should have no sign but that of the prophet 
Jonah (Matt. 12: 38-39). But He was ever respon- 
sive to the appeals for compassion and help. Some 
of the most beautiful pictures we have of the Master 
are those which reveal Him in His healing works. His 
fame was spread through all the region by the “begin- 
‘ning of miracles’ at the wedding feast, which “mani- 
fested his glory and led his disciples to believe on 
him’’ (John 2:11); by the healing of the nobleman’s 
son by a word, spoken at a distance (John 4: 48-50); 
and by the casting out of the unclean spirit which 
recognized Him as the Holy One from God (Luke 
4: 31-37). Then Luke gives this charming eventide 
picture at Capernaum: 


“And when the sun was setting, all they that had any 
sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he 
laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. And 
demons also came out from many, crying out, and saying, 
Thou art the Son of God. And rebuking them, he suffered 
them not to speak, because they knew that he was the 
Christ” (4: 40-41). 


Thus on this as on many other occasions the evil 
spirits bore their unwilling testimony. Matthew and 
Mark also give the same story, Mark adding that all 
the city was gathered together at the door (1: 32-34), 
and Matthew seeing the fulfilment of prophecy (8:17). 
The healing of the leper added to the reports, and great 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 117 


crowds came together to hear and be healed of their 
infirmities (Luke 5:15), forcing Jesus to withdraw 
into desert places for a time. Then He made a tour 
of Galilee, teaching and preaching, and healing all 
manner of disease and sickness; so that all Syria heard 
of Him and they brought unto Him all that were sick, 
possessed of demons, epileptic and palsied, and He 
healed them. Multitudes, too, came from Galilee and 
Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond 
Jordan (Matt. 4: 23-25). Luke says “they that were 
troubled with unclean spirits were healed; and all the 
multitude sought to touch him: for power came forth 
from him and healed them all” (6: 18-19). Andasa 
further record, Mark gives this graphic portrayal: 


“And when they were come out of the boat, straightway 
the people knew him, and ran round about that whole region, 
and began to carry about on their beds those that were 
sick, where they heard that he was. And wheresoever he 
entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they 
laid the sick in the market-places, and besought him that 
they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: 
and as many as touched him were made whole” (Mark 


6: 54-56). 


Many other passages tell of this sympathetic min- 
istry. The strand of miracle indeed runs through the 
whole Gospel story. Aside from the indirect references 
to miraculous action the records contain thirty-five ac- 
counts of signs or miracles wrought by Jesus. Five of 
these belong to the ‘‘nature” miracles—the changing of 
water into wine, the feeding of the multitudes, stilling 
the tempest, walking on the water, and the withering 
of the fig-tree. Three record the raising of the dead 
to life, and the other thirty-two have to do with sal- 
vaging bodies damaged by disease and infirmities or 


118 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


possessed by demons. Yet in spite of the fact that these 
miracles form so large a part of the recorded activities 
of Jesus, He was always the Teacher and not merely 
the Healer. With the healing the teaching was in 
many instances inextricably interwoven: as in the case 
of the man with the withered hand (Matt. 12: 9-13; 
Mark 3: 1-5; Luke 6: 6-10) ; the man born blind (John 
Q); the raising of Lazarus (John 11: 1-44); and the 
sick man at the pool (John 5:1-16). It is not our 
concern here to follow the records in detail, or to con- 
sider the purpose of the miracles in Jesus’ plan. Our 
interest lies in the bearing which the miracles have as 
a living part of the teaching of Jesus concerning Him- 
selfi—‘‘declarations in deeds to match His words.” ‘The 
effect of them was not only to serve human need as it 
reached and touched the Master’s heart, and to show 
forth the Divine compassion, but to secure Him the 
widest hearing for the message of the Kingdom. What 
Fie sought was not belief in His power to do Signs, 
but belief in Him and His Father who sent Him. His 
own thought of what His “mighty works’—to use His 
own phrase—ought to have accomplished is shown in 
the woes He pronounced upon Chorazin, Bethsaida and 
Capernaum, wherein most of His miracles were done, 
because they repented not: “Woe to you, Chorazin! 
Woe to you, Bethsaida! Had the mighty works done 
in you been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have 
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes’ (Matt. 
11;20-22)), | 

These “mighty works” bring their incontestable proof 
that Jesus possessed and exercised as the Son of God 
the power to perform Signs, even to the control of the 
forces of nature and the raising from the dead, as a 
part of that “all power’? which He declared the Father 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 119 | 


had given Him (Matt. 28:18); and that the infinite 
resources of the Father were at His disposal, to be 
used in His discretion for the highest welfare of human- 
ity. In the miracles faith was the condition which 
seemed most requisite, and which He sought to inspire: 
faith in Himself and in the love and power of the 
Father. (See Matt. 15:28; Mark 9: 23-24; Mark 
10:52; Luke 8:48). In one instance it is said that 
for lack of faith on the part of His fellow townsfolk, 
He could do no mighty work there (Mark 6:5). And 
when He had stilled the storm, it was lack of faith in 
the Father’s care for which He chided the disciples: 
“How is it that ye have no faith?’ (Mark 4: 40). 
for the most part, however, His purpose to call forth 
faith was accomplished. Even those naturally opposed 
to Him were overcome by His “works” of mercy. 
When He was teaching in the Temple, declaring, “I am 
not come of myself, but he that sent me is true,’ the 
record says many believed on Him, and they said, 
“When the Christ shall come, will he do more signs 
than this man?” (John 7:31). John the Evangelist 
gives us the reason why he included the seven Signs 
which he selected for his Gospel: “And many other 
signs truly did Jesus . . . which are not written in 
this book: but these are written, that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that 
believing ye might have life through his name’ 
(20: 30-31). 

But whether the miracles impress us most by their 
proofs of the compassion of a Great Heart, or of a 
purpose to bring men to a real faith in God and His 
love, they do the one thing that is of supreme impor- 
tance—they reveal Jesus ever more clearly as the great- 
est of all miracles. “He shows Himself,’ says Dr. 


120 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


D. S. Cairns, ‘Lord of the destroying powers of nature, 
Lord of the famine and the storm, of diseases of body 
and mind, and even over the power of the grave.” “It 
would be the greatest miracle indeed,” says Dr. Philip 
Schaff,~‘if He, who is a miracle Himself, should have 
performed no miracle.” No wonder He performed 
can match the wonder of His life; no physical power 
He exercised can equal the moral power of His char- 
acter ; no bodily healing can compare with His spiritual 
influence upon the lives of men. “Never man so 
spake,” never man so wrought, never man so lived. 
When we can explain the miracle of Jesus we shall 
have little trouble with other signs of*miraculous power. 

In the opinion of a recent writer, the miracles were 
“normal to Jesus: they were part of the way in which 
He expressed Himself; an inevitable outcome of His 
personality, irrepressible acts of help and love. He 
could not stand indifferent or impotent in face of sor- 
row, or need, or suffering.” He calls attention to the 
fact that Jesus rarely laid much stress on Signs, and 
says: “He came not as a worker of miracles but as a 
Teacher who sought to communicate Himself to His 
scholars and so to reveal to them the Father. And 
the miracles were an essential part of this teaching, 
‘the translation of His gospel into life.’ They are the 
signs of His character as well as of His power, they 
declare His nature as truly as His mission.” * It is 
certain that they convinced the people of His time that 
FH{e was possessed of superhuman power and was at 
least worthy to rank with the greatest of the prophets 
(Matt. 16:14; 21:9-I1). 

3G. R. H. Shafto, “The Wonders of the Kingdom,” p. 181. To 
readers who wish a concise and fresh study of the miracles in de- 


tail, in the light of recent knowledge, this volume, just published, 
is commended. 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 121 


When to His words and works we have added the 
life of Jesus—His attitude and activities as ‘““He went 
about doing good,’ His entire submission to the 
_Father’s will, His unfaltering consecration to His mis- 
sion, even to the self-sacrificing finish on the cross— 
we are prepared to review and summarize His teaching 
concerning Himself. 

Consider first His direct and personal claims. He 
declares that He came forth from the Father, with 
Whom He had previously existed; that God so loved 
the world that He sent Him, His only begotten Son, 
to save it, not to condemn it; that He alone has seen 
the Father, that He knows the Father, and that no one 
else can know the Father unless the Son chooses to 
reveal Him; that He has life in Himself even as the 
Father has; that all authority has been given Him by 
the Father ; that no one can come to the Father except 
through Him; that as the Father raiseth the dead to 
life, so the Son raiseth whom He will; that He speaks 
as He is taught of the Father who sent Him; that He 
does not His own will but the will of the Father ; that 
He and the Father are one; that He does the works 
of His Father; that He has the power of life and 
death, of admission or rejection into the Kingdom of 
heaven; that He has power to forgive sins; that what 
He sees the Father do, He does also; that He the Son 
of Man is lord of the Sabbath, greater than Moses or 
the Temple; that He is the bread of eternal life and 
the door to salvation; that He has power to lay down 
His life and power to take it up again; that whosoever 
believes in Him will have eternal life; but that they 
who believe not shall not see life; and that all judgment 
has been committed unto Him by the Father. 

These are colossal claims, but they are not all. 


122 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Strongly asserting His humanity, calling Himself the 
Son of Man about eighty times in the Gospels, with 
its Messianic and other implications, Jesus equally as- 
serts His divinity by calling Himself the Son of God, 
a name by which the disciples also address Him, ac- 
companying the appellation in one instance by worship- 
ping Him (Matt. 14:33); while by this name even 
the demons recognize His divine character. Thus He 
assumes a unique relationship to man and God. The 
ideal, universal, absolute representative of humanity, 
He is also the Son sent by the Father to reveal both 
Father and Son to the world. He announces without 
hesitation truths hard to believe. “If ye believe not 
that I am he, ye shall die in your sins’ (John 8:24), 
He says to the Pharisees who charge Him with bearing 
false witness of Himself. He says He is from above, 
and constantly speaks of Himself as sent from God. 
When the time has come, He openly admits that He 
is the Christ, or Messiah, of whom Moses and the 
prophets wrote, and finally permits a public entry in 
Jerusalem in His honor, the multitudes hailing Him: 
“Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he that 
cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 21: 8-9). He 
appoints the Twelve to the new spiritual Kingdom 
which He came to found, even as the Father has ap- 
pointed it to Him as its lawgiver and head (Luke 
22:29, 30). Then in His parting word to His 
disciples He makes that majestic claim of universal 
authority, asserting that all power has been given unto 
Him in heaven and on earth, and as He bids them go 
and teach all nations He gives the solemn promise of 
His presence all the days even unto the end of the world 
(Matt. 28: 18-20). 

And in these words, says Dr. Hanna, Jesus “an- 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 123 


nounced in the simplest and least ostentatious way the 
most original, the broadest, the sublimest enterprise 
that ever human beings have been called upon to ac- 
complish.”’ It would be indeed hopeless but for that 
“all authority” of the living Christ and the promise 
of His daily presence until its completion. 

The teaching of Jesus concerning Himself includes 
His death on the cross, for that He plainly predicted 
and understood. When He took the title Son of Man 
He knew its origin, and as His consciousness of His 
Messianic mission grew upon Him He realized that only 
by drinking the cup to its bitter dregs could He accom- 
plish the Father’s will and the redemptive work He 
was sent to do. The cross was His supreme revelation 
of the inmost heart of God. Therefore it is proper 
to add to the volume of testimony all that has resulted 
from that tragedy of Calvary and the Saviour’s daring 
declaration, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me.” But all the results can never 
be known until the final records are made up. What 
we do know is that the Man of Calvary is the most 
majestic figure in the world to-day. 

Having thus studied the Gospel records, we come 
again to the question, “What think ye of Christ?” 
What shall we say of His own witness? We have 
searched the Scriptures which tell His life story. We 
have heard strange words from His lips, and witnessed 
“mighty works’ performed, according to His own 
word, by His Father through Him. With those who 
gathered about Him in Galilee and Judea we can ask, 
“Whence hath this man these things?’ We have been 
walking in high places and with the Son of the Highest. 
We have felt the touch of a Personality such as the 
world never saw save in this solitary instance—a Per- 


124 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


sonality that has exerted an unparalleled influence 
through more than nineteen centuries, and that is more 
vivid, inspiring and vitalizing in our time than ever 
before. ‘It is when Jesus speaks of Himself that we 
catch a note original in the music of the world,” says 
Professor Robertson, and we have been listening to 
that note. In the earthly life of Jesus we have seen 
the human life of God, to borrow a sentence from Dr. 
James A. Francis. We have discovered that while 
the Gospels give different shadings, they all picture the 
same imperial Person, the Son of Man and Son of 
God, superlatively human and superlatively divine, who 
brings to us in His words, works and life a revelation 
and certainty of God as a Father who is love, who 
cares for all His children, in whom we can find Joy, 
peace and rest—to whom His Son is the Way. 

It is in the line of our purpose that our study is 
confined to the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, so 
that this might be considered independently. This does 
not mean any intention to overlook, slight or disregard 
the testimony concerning our Lord which is found in 
the words and attitude of the disciples or the enemies 
who gathered around Him, or in the New Testament 
aside from the Gospels. That, together with the vast 
volume of supplementary testimony contained in the 
history of the Christian Church and of the development 
of Christian civilization throughout the world, must 
all be taken into account in the forming of a final judg- 
ment. But our immediate interest lies in determining 
what we think of Jesus and His claims in the light 
of His own words and deeds and sinless life. We have 
sought to find the Gospel basis for individual judg- 
ment in this particular regard. Once having the sure 
foundations laid in the witness of the One who alone 


CONCERNING HIMSELF 125 


can speak with ultimate and unassailable knowledge 
and authority, the building of an unshakable superstruc- 
ture will be possible. As Jesus said in the parable 
which closes the teaching of the highest ethics known 
to man, “Every one therefore that heareth these words 
of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise 
man, who built his house upon the rock” (Matt. 7: 24). 

We have been with Jesus and have learned from 
Him of God the Father and of Himself the Son. It is 
through Him as the authorized interpreter and teacher 
that we know God (Matt. 11: 25-27). For Him God 
is real, living and personal, and He has made the Father 
real, living and personal to us, with a heart of infinite 
love. This cannot fail to have influence upon our life 
and thinking. <A great thing will it be for us and for 
others if we shall catch from this contact something of 
the Teacher’s faith and spirit and filial attitude; if a 
new enthusiasm shall possess us; and if we shall find 
it true that our study has brought us so close to Him 
that we have received a new experience of the living 
Christ in our hearts. Then in the spirit of a true and 
loyal discipleship we may join in that song which 
Richard Watson Gilder puts in the mouth of a heathen 
sojourning in Galilee in A. D. 32: 

“If Jesus Christ be a man 
And only a man, I say 


That of all mankind I will cling to Him, 
To Him will I cling alway. 


“If Jesus Christ be God 
And the only God, I swear 

I will follow Him thro’ heaven and hell, 
The earth, the sea, and the air.” 





Ne eit 
Wy 
























; y h t byAr ' Watt | a ry { POW MAT Ae RN 1 ee 


ad } fives oN Be Vera pat VV ae 


a Via ; i Sree | Me ie 5 ial ie Sie, 






CHAPTER THREE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 


There is no strange and distant place 
That is not gladdened by His face; 
And every nation kneels to hail 

The splendor shining through its veil. 


—Joyce Kilmer. 


But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will 
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to 
your remembrance all that I said unto you. ... When he, 
the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the 
truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things 
soever he shall hear, these shall he speak. He shall glorify 
me; for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. 
—Words of Jesus. 


Jesus claimed to be the great interpreter of God. He in- 
vites men to come to Him for expert knowledge of God 
(Matt. 11:27; John 5:19). He is, here the great \Deacher, 
The Gospel of Matthew lays special emphasis on the teach- 
ing of Jesus, and this is the core of it all. Jesus is the 
Teacher of God. The Son alone fully knows the Father.— 
A. T. Robertson. 


Do we know God in the Spirit? His incarnation in Jesus 
evidences His “incarnability,” and His eagerness to have 
His fulness dwell in every son who will receive Him. To 
know God in the Spirit is so to follow Jesus that we share 
His sonship with the Father and have Him abiding in us, 
working through us His works, manifesting Himself in our 
mortal lives—Henry Sloane Coffin. 


Nothing is more hopeful in the religious life of our own 
time than the deepening interest in the idea of the Spirit. 
. .. Men are assured, as never before, of a divine power 
which is working in their lives and in the affairs of the 
world. This belief in the Spirit ... carries with it, if 
the testimony of the past means anything, the promise of a 
new and more vital faith—E. F. Scott. 


CHAPTER THREE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
THE HOLY SPIRIT 


From the revelation and interpretation of God and of 
Himself, we now turn to the teaching of Jesus con- 
cerning the Holy Spirit. For knowledge, as heretofore, 
we look to Him first. Coming to the Gospels, we find 
that nearly all of His teaching on this subject is con- 
tained in the Gospel of John. In Matthew, Mark and 
Luke He makes only a few direct references to it. 
These we shall consider first; and to fill in the back- 
ground and make the view more complete we shall 
include all mentions of the Holy Spirit by the three 
Evangelists. 

The first instance is in the announcement of the angel 
to Zacharias regarding John, who “shall be filled with 
the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:15). Then follows the an- 
nunciation by Gabriel to Mary (Luke 1:35); Elisa- 
beth’s ecstatic experience (1:41); Zacharias’ inspired 
prophecy (1:67); and the angel’s appearance and an- 
nouncement to Joseph (Matt. 1: 18-20). Aged Simeon 
came to the Temple “in the Spirit,’ “and the Holy 
Spirit was upon him’ and made a revelation to him 
(Luke 2: 25-27). This indicates the traditional view 
of the Spirit which especially centered in the Messiah 
and was made prominent in the prophets—a view cher- 
ished by devout Jews like Simeon and Anna, Zacharias 
and Elisabeth, and all who lived in hope of Israel’s re- 


demption. 
129 


130 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Jesus comes into the picture at His baptism. John 
the Baptist has told the people, who are expectant and 
questioning whether haply he 1s the Christ, that there 
cometh one after him who is worthier and mightier 
than he, who shall baptize them “‘with the Holy Spirit.” 
Jesus comes from Galilee to be baptized, and the three 
Evangelists unite in their description of the opening 
neavens, the descent of the Spirit like a dove, and a 
voice out of the heavens, saying, ‘““This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3: 11, 16, 17; 
Mark 123, Tomiis Luke 316, 21/22). eiviatthewisayes 
Jesus “saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and 
resting upon him’’; Mark merely says “Spirit”; Luke 
says that as Jesus was praying “the Holy Spirit de- 
scended in a bodily form,” which appeared to the others 
asadove. The fact significant to all, as to Jesus Him- 
self, was a special Divine recognition and preparation 
for what was to follow. 

This was apparently strange enough, for as Jesus, 
“full of the Holy Spirit,’ returned from the Jordan, 
He was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be 
tempted of the devil” after forty days of fasting ( Matt. 
4°03 Mark oi 3 Tas.) uke 41-2) oi Mark hsavomicue 
“Spirit driveth him forth,’ and adds the touch that 
he was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered 
unto him. That the Spirit sustained Him is proved by 
the outcome, though the records contain no specific 
statement. 

Jesus makes His first reference to the Spirit in the 
synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4: 18), identifying Him- 
self with the Messianic prophecy. The second reference 
is when the Pharisees charged that He cast out demons 
“by Beelzebub the prince of the demons,” and Jesus, 
after He has given them one of His unanswerable turns 


CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 131 


of reason, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” says, 
“But if I by (or in) the Spirit of God cast out demons, 
then is the kingdom of God come upon you” (Matt. 
12: 22-28). Luke makes Jesus say (11:20), “But 
if I by the finger of God,” instead of Spirit. 

In immediate connection is the solemn declaration, 
indicating His indignation at the charge that He 
had worked His miracles in collusion with Beelzebub, 
“Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy 
shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against 
the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall 
speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be for- 
given him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy 
Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
world, nor in that which is to come” (Matt. 12: 31, 32). 
Mark has a shorter form, in which the Son of Man is 
not mentioned, and the enlightening remark is added, 
“because they said, he hath an unclean spirit’ (Mark 
3: 28-29). Slander of the Holy Spirit is the unpardon- 
able sin, and to call the divine power Satanic is slander. 
“For the man who calls evil good, who decides and 
vilifies a work which is manifestly of God, there can 
be no hope,” says Professor Scott. Jesus declares that 
the Spirit which dwells in Him is the Spirit of God; 
it is in the power of this Spirit that He works His 
miracles; and to slander or blaspheme this Spirit 1s 
an eternal sin. 

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus promises the power of 
the Spirit to the Twelve when He sends them forth, 
telling them not to be anxious if they shall be brought 
before councils and governors and kings, “for it shall 
be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For 
it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father 
that speaketh in you’ (Matt. 10:17-22). But this 


132 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


word is given in Mark (13: 9-12), in connection with 
the last days, and this seems the more reasonable time 
for such events. After the Seventy returned, it is said 
that Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10: 21) 
as He offered a prayer of thanksgiving. This com- 
pletes the record in the first three Gospels. If it seems 
strange that these Evangelists say so little about the 
Spirit, as compared with the teaching of Jesus found 
in John, it must be remembered that each writer had 
his own particular purpose and énd in view; that the 
three agree in setting forth graphically the life and 
work of Jesus in its immediate relationship to God and 
man; and that certain aspects of His teaching and 
ministry which appealed to them were different from 
those which appealed to John, who is reflective where 
they are active. Then, the body of the teaching in 
John came at the very close of the Master’s career, 
during which He had needed no intermediary between 
Him and the Father or between Himself and man. It 
was not until it became expedient for Him to go away 
that He could disclose the coming of the Holy Spirit 
and what that should mean to them and to the future 
of mankind. That disclosure fell naturally to the 
Evangelist who wrote later than the others, who omits 
many of the miracles and incidents which they give, 
and who alone presents those closing scenes in the life 
of our Lord which have touched the heart of humanity 
to a new sense of divinity and adoration, an ever in- 
creasing loyalty of loving devotion to the Master who 
in that tragic hour opened His inmost heart that He 
might comfort His disciples and fortify them against 
the impending shock and the trial of their faith in 
Him and the Father. 

We come then to the Gospel of John and its teach- 


CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 133 


ing. As in the case of the other Gospels, we shall con- 
sider all the instances in which reference is made to 
the Spirit. The Evangelist does not describe the bap- 
tism of Jesus, as the other Evangelists do, but makes 
John the Baptist bear witness to the fact of the Spirit 
descending as a dove and abiding upon Him: “And 
I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with 
water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt 
see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the 
same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And 
I have seen and have borne witness that this is the 
Son of God” (John 1: 29-34). 

The first instance in which Jesus speaks of the Spirit 
is when He tells Nicodemus, in regard to the new birth, 
that except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot enter 
the kingdom, and that that which is born of the Spirit 
is spirit (2:5-8). Jesus reveals to the woman of 
Samaria that God is Spirit and must be worshipped in 
spirit and truth (4:24). He speaks repeatedly of 
the power of the Spirit imparted to Him by the 
Father. This enduement of the Spirit indeed explains 
the source of His divine energy as exhibited in His 
miracles and ministry. “It is the Spirit that giveth 
life,” He says to the disciples (6:63). From that 
time as He goes on in His work He appears in close 
and intimate companionship with the Father who has 
sent Him and speaks and works through Him. Asa 
proof that His message and mission are from God, 
He says: “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the 
words of God: for he giveth not the Spirit by measure 
to him. The Father loveth the Son and hath given 
all things into his hand” (3:34, 35). 

The next reference is not made by Jesus but by John, 
and is explanatory of his view. Since Jesus, in John’s 


134 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


prologue, is the incarnate Logos and of divine nature, 
He has no need of the supernatural gift of the Spirit. 
“The evangelist’s own conception of the Spirit is that 
of a power which first came into operation after Jesus’ 
death, to make up for His actual presence. He asserts 
in so many words that during Jesus’ lifetime the Spirit 
did not yet exist, since His death was the necessary 
condition of its coming.” * Thus, after Jesus on the last, 
the great day of the feast, has stood and cried, saying, 
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink,” 
promising the fulfilment of Scripture, the Evangelist 
says, as in parenthesis, “But this spake he of the Spirit, 
which they that believed on him were to receive: for 
the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not 
yet glorified” (7: 37-390). 

This is in line with the words of Jesus, to which 
we now come. Not that the Spirit of the Father was 
not recognized by Him all along as directly moving 
and guiding Him, but that the Holy Spirit as a special 
manifestation and power could not come to the disciples 
while the Master was with them. The Holy Spirit 
was bequeathed to them as His own parting gift, whose 
significance they first realized on the day of Pentecost. 

It was during the last supper, surrounded by the 
eleven who now formed the “inner circle,” that Jesus 
included in His farewell message the teaching which 
is the basis of our knowledge concerning the Holy 
Spirit as the Comforter, the Helper, the teaching inter- 
preter of Jesus, and the energizing power of God in 
the life of the world and in the establishment of the 
kingdom of God among men. 

Jesus has just made his appeal to Philip, has promised 
that those who believe in Him shall do greater works 


1E. F, Scott, “The Spirit in the New Testament,” p. 194. 


CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 135 


than His because he goes unto the Father, and that He 
will do whatsoever they ask in His name, that the 
Father may be glorified in the Son (14: 11-14). Then 
He says, in Moffatt’s translation: 


“If you love me, you will keep my commands, and I will 
ask the Father to give you another Helper? to be with you 
forever, even the Spirit of truth: the world cannot receive 
him, because it neither sees nor knows him, but you know 
him, because he remains with you and will be within you. 
I will not leave you forlorn; I am coming to you. A little 
while longer and the world will see me no more; but you 
will see me because I am living and you will be living too. 
You will understand on that day, that I am in my Father and 
you are in me and I am in you (14: 15-20). 

“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from 
the Father, even the spirit of truth which issues from 
the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you too are wit- 
nesses, for you have been with me from the very beginning” 
is 2027): 

“I did not tell you about this at the beginning, because I 
was with you then; but now I am going to him who sent 
me. And yet not one of you asks, ‘Where are you going?’ 
No, your heart is full of sorrow at what I have told you. 
Yet—I am telling you the truth—my going is for your good. 
If I do not depart, the Helper will not come to you; whereas 
if I go, I will send him to you. 

“And when he comes, he will convict the world, convincing 
men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, be- 
cause they do not believe in me; of righteousness, because I 
go to the Father and you see me no more; of judgment, 
because the Prince of this world has been judged. I have 
still much to say to you, but you cannot bear it just now. 
However, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you 
into all the truth; for he will not speak of his own accord, 


2 The Authorized and Revised Versions give “Comforter” where 
Moffatt chooses ‘‘Helper.” The Greek word 6 Mapé«dyros (The Para- 
clete), which Jesus introduces as a synonym for Spirit or Holy 
Spirit, means advocate, intercessor or supporter, so that either 
“Comforter” or “Helper” is admissible. The Paraclete is often 
used, as a transliteration. 


136 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


he will say what he is told, and he will disclose to you 
what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will draw upon 
what is mine; and disclose it to you. All that the Father 
has is mine; that is why I say, ‘He will draw upon what is 
mine and disclose it to you.’ In a little while you will behold 
me no longer; then, after a little, you will see me” (16: 4-17). 


Comforting them by repeating His promise that He 
will come again, and that “If a man love me, he will 
keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” 
Jesus closes with these words: “I have told you all 
this while I am still with you, but the Helper, the Holy 
Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will 
teach you everything and recall to you everything that 
I have said” (14:25, 26). This assures them that the 
coming of the Spirit in His name and as His repre- 
sentative does not mean that He will be permanently 
absent. He has defined the special function which the 
Holy Spirit is to fill. And that this is His parting gift 
to them is made clear in the account, given only in 
this Gospel, when the risen Lord appears to the 
disciples who are within shut doors and speaks Peace; 
and after repeating this says, “As the Father hath 
sent me, even so send I you.” Then the record adds, 
“When he had said this, he breathed on them, and 
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit’ (20: 19- 
22). The effect of this is not told. The enduement 
with “power from on high” at Pentecost was to come 
later. | 
Luke tells what followed, as he describes vividly the 
last scene in the earthly career of our Lord. Giving 
His final teaching concerning the fulfilment of law, 
prophecy and psalm in Himself, Jesus says to “the 
eleven and their friends who were gathered with them,” 


CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 137 


“To this you must bear testimony. And I will send 
- down on you what my Father has promised; wait in the 
city until you are endued with power from on high.” 
Then he led them out to Bethany, lifted His hands in 
blessing, and “as he blessed them he departed from 
them,” and they returned to Jerusalem “‘with great joy” 
and waited, as He bade them (Luke 24: 44-53). 

This concludes the record in the Gospels, but the 
Evangelist Luke, who wrote the Gospel, also wrote 
The Acts of the Apostles, and in beginning the latter 
volume somewhat amplifies the Gospel story of the 
Ascension. He says that Jesus, as He ate with the 
disciples whom He had chosen, charged them not to 
leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father 
promised—‘“for what you have heard me speak of,” 
said He; “for John baptized with water, but not many 
days after this you shall be baptized with the Holy 
Spirit.” They asked Him if this was the time when 
He was going to restore again the kingdom to Israel, 
and He told them, “It is not for you to know the 
course and periods of time that the Father has fixed 
by his own authority.” Then He added, “You will re- 
ceive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and 
you will.be my witnesses at Jerusalem, throughout all 
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” On 
saying this He was lifted up while they looked on, and 
a cloud took Him out of their sight (Acts 1: 4-9). 

According to the teaching of Jesus, then, the Holy 
Spirit was to be sent from the Father by Jesus and in 
His name. The Spirit of truth, he would be an abiding 
Comforter or Helper; when he came he would bear 
witness to Jesus, whose going was for His disciples’ 
good, since if He did not depart the Helper could not 
come, whereas, if He went, He would send him. The 


138 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness 
and judgment; will guide into all the truth, for he 
shall not speak from himself, but will speak what he 
shall hear, and declare what is to come. He will glorify 
Jesus; will teach His disciples all things, and bring to 
their remembrance all that He said to them. This is a 
definite and specific work, and to this we can turn with 
confidence as a basal starting point. From this teaching, 
and the accompanying words of Jesus, it is clear that 
the presence of the Holy Spirit does not mean the ab- 
sence of the Master from the affairs of the world He 
came to redeem and the hearts of those who receive 
and love Him. On the contrary, He assures the 
disciples that His death will not separate but will bring 
Him nearer than ever. It is His promise to be with 
His own to the end, and human experience has proved 
His promise unfailingly true. Nothing is ever to come 
between Jesus and the individual soul, or to replace 
Him in the heart and life of His own. 

With this teaching of Jesus concerning Himself and 
the Holy Spirit we have a completed view of His reve- 
lation of God, as contained in the Gospels. The work 
of the Holy Spirit as Comforter, set forth in the Gospel 
of John, had not yet begun. The remarkable outpour- 
ing of “power from on high” at Pentecost, in accord 
with Jesus’ promise, has its record in the Acts and 
the history of the early church as given in the New 
Testament. It finds its continuance through all the 
Christian centuries wherever the Spirit of God has 
manifested itself, and in whatever forms the Divine 
Energy has wrought out His purposes in the life of 
the world. The subject is vital, but we cannot follow it 
here, beyond giving some conclusions condensed from 
Professor Scott, whose volume on “The Spirit in the 


CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 139 


New Testament’ is commended to those interested as 
an admirable study of the doctrine of the Spirit, from 
its original conception in primitive religion, through 
the Old and New Testament period, to its place in the 
thought of to-day. 

‘The doctrine of the Spirit,’ he says, “has been an 
element of incalculable value in our religion. The be- 
lief that Jesus had bequeathed the Spirit as His crown- 
ing gift to His people was something more than an 
imagination of the early church. It was their assurance 
of the Spirit that enabled the disciples to undertake 
their tremendous task. They were convinced that a 
divine power was working through them, and in this 
faith they could feel themselves superior to all hostile 
forces. In every time since a like belief in the Spirit 
has given strength to endure and overcome. It has 
never failed to lift men above themselves, and to make 
real for them the very present help of God. This 
belief made it possible to apprehend the Gospel as an 
immediate divine message. Through Christ the Spirit 
had been vouchsafed to men: they had access to the 
living sources of power. Even now, in the message of 
Christ we recognize a living power which cannot be 
defined, and which we can only call the Spirit of God. 
In the inward witness of the Spirit Christians have a 
confirmation of the truth, since the Spirit assures them 
they are God’s children. The doctrine answers thus to 
a real experience. Apart from belief in the Spirit we 
can discover no meaning in the life of humanity, and 
all the hopes we live by fall to the ground. Consciously 
or not, men have come to think of this Spirit in the 
light of the message of Jesus. In many directions the 
world is governed to-day by the New Testament con- 
ception. It believes that the mind of the Spirit is the 


140 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


mind of Christ. He pointed us, once for all, to the 
true goal; and the power which moves mysteriously in 
the lives of men and nations does not act blindly. It 
is accomplishing, in even larger measure, the will of 
Christ, and is leading us towards that Kingdom which 
He proclaimed.” 

The relationship of the Father to the Son and the 
Holy Spirit is a perplexing subject to many devout 
disciples of Jesus. Light is shed upon it by Dr. Coffin 
in a little volume which is full of warmth and inspira- 
tion.* Condensing a passage which treats of the doc- 
trine of the Trinity, we quote as follows: “We know 
God our Father in His Son. Our approach to God 
begins with Him. We know God’s love only as we ex- 
perience the grace of Jesus. To know God in the 
Spirit is so to follow Jesus that we share His sonship 
with the Father and have Him abiding in us, working 
through us His works, manifesting Himself in our 
mortal lives. Our Father has His life in the lives of 
His children. The Spirit is God’s Life in men, God 
living in them. To possess His will to serve, His sense 
of obligation, His interest and compassion, is to have 
the Holy Spirit dwelling and regnant in us. It was 
so that the Father’s Spirit possessed Jesus and made 
His abode in Him: and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit 
of the Father and of the Son in the Christian com- 
munity. 

“God over all—the Father to whom we look up with 
utter trust, and from whom moment by moment we 
take our lives in obedient devotion; God through all— 
through Jesus supremely, and through every child who 
opens his life to Him with the willingness of Jesus; 
God in all—the directing, empowering, sanctifying 


3 Henry Sloane Coffin, “Some Christian Convictions,” p. 135 ff. 


CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 141 


Spirit, producing in us characters like Christ’s, employ- 
ing and equipping us for the work of His Kingdom, 
and revealing Himself in a community more and more 
controlled by love: this is our Christian thought of the 
Divine—‘One God and Father of all, who is over all 
and through all and in all.’ ”’ 

The prayer of the familiar hymn will never be out- 
grown while earth’s discipleship lasts: 


“Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, 
With all Thy quickening powers, 
Kindle a flame of sacred love 
In these cold hearts of ours. 


“Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, 
With all Thy quickening powers, 
Come, shed abroad a Saviour’s love, 

And that shall kindle ours.” 


* 
2 


ee 
ee 
a 





CHAPTER Four 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING CHARACTER 


The Carpenter of Galilee 
Comes down the street again, 
In every land, in every age, 
He still is building men. 
—Hilda W. Smith. 


Jesus was God’s character lived out in the midst of human 
affairs—Wailton Rix. 


Though we may never be able to reason out to our satis- 
faction how God and man unite in Him, we discover in Him 
the God who redeems us and the Man we aspire to be— 
Henry Sloane Coffin. 


Jesus looms colossal before the eyes of the world. All 
men can see Him now. ... When we study His method, we 
discover that His supreme concern is for the rightness of 
heart of the individual man. This molder of empires gives 
Himself to the task of molding individual men... . Here 
then is Jesus’ own secret for making an old world over. 
He will introduce golden ages by giving individuals a char- 
acter like His own. His character is a form of power 
mightier than the legions of Czsar or the wisdom of the 
schools—Charles E. Jefferson. 


By His own character and example Jesus gave reality to 
the moral ideal. He was no abstract thinker who formulated 
an ethical theory. All that He taught was exemplified in 
Himself, so that He stands out forever as the manifestation 
of the higher life.... His gift, as the fourth Evangelist 
perceived, was nothing else than the communication of His 
own life to those who accepted Him as Lord—Ernest F. 
Scott. 


CHAPTER Four 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
CHARACTER 


“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give 
in exchange for his soul?’ asks Jesus (Matt. 16: 26). 
The soul is of supreme value, then, according to the 
teaching of Jesus. All the world beside is of small 
account compared to it. And this soul, this thinking, 
feeling, willing self, is Character. Taking the word 
in its source, it comes into the English direct from the 
Greek, without change of form. The noun yapaxrip 
is derived from the verb yapdoow—i.e., to engrave 
upon, to. cut in, to stamp indelibly, to reproduce per- 
fectly. The noun is used but once in the New Testa- 
ment (Hebrews 1:3), but its use there is most ex- 
pressive. Jesus is declared to be the “brightness of 
God’s glory” and the “character” of his person—this 
being translated “express image’ in the Authorized 
Version, and “very image’ or “impress of his sub- 
stance” in the Revised, while Moffatt conveys the origi- 
nal meaning more nearly, “stamped with God’s own 
image.”’ | 

Character finds in Jesus Christ both its idealization 
and its realization. He is its perfect exemplification— 
unique and alone. What has He to teach us concern- 
ing this highest creative product of God? 

It is consistent with His method of teaching, as we 


have already seen, that Jesus never uses the word nor 
145 


146 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


gives a definition. Just as He assumes the existence of 
God, without argument or definition, and brings out the 
attributes and character of the Father by the indirect 
and illustrative method, so when it comes to this great 
fact of human character He pictures rather than de- 
fines, teaches in parables, sketches in bold strokes both 
characters and the qualities that make or mar them. 
He is all the time dealing with character, this inde- 
structible self which He came to rescue and redeem and 
make worthy of divine sonship. And all the time He 
is teaching what Christian character is and should be 
by the daily revelation of it in Himself. 

Coming to the Gospels again as the source of our 
knowledge, the first teaching we shall consider is the 
Sermon on the Mount, which deals essentially with 
moral character, and goes to the heart of it in such 
wise that it is customary to hear this teaching called 
ideal, visionary, impractical—even Christians some- 
times assenting, as though Jesus would lay down prin- 
ciples which He did not expect His disciples to heed 
or attempt to carry out in action. Turning to the fifth 
chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, see how freshly signifi- 
cant the Beatitudes become if we regard them as per- 
sonifying Character. Combine these qualities or attri- 
butes—lowly-mindedness, or humility, mourning over 
imperfection (or a “divine discontent” with oneself), 
meekness, or forbearance, hungering and thirsting after 
righteousness, brotherliness, purity, peace-making, en- 
durance under persecution and reproach—build them 
into a single personality, and see what a supremely noble 
man you would have, like unto the Son of Man. This 
would be the righteousness of Jesus incarnate, and 
this Man would typify the redeemed character that in- 
herits the kingdom of God (Matt. 5: 1-12). 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 147 


An illustrative description of Christian character fol- 
lows, for Jesus is now teaching His disciples. This 
character, He says, is the purifying and preservative 
agency in the corrupt life of the earth (ver. 13); it is 
the light of the world that so shines before men in its 
product of good works that they, seeing, glorify the 
Father in heaven (ver. 14-16). Those who possess this 
character do not disregard or disobey God’s law (ver. 
17-20) ; do not get angry without cause (ver. 21-22) ; 
seek reconciliation with an offended brother (ver. 23- 
26); keep the thoughts as well as the conduct pure, and 
are obedient to the laws of God regarding the family 
relations (ver. 27-32) ; are willing to make any required 
sacrifice of self (ver. 29-30); refrain from profane, 
unworthy and unnecessary language (ver. 33-37); ex- 
ercise the spirit of sufferance, charity, forgiveness and 
liberality (ver. 38-42) ; love and pray for their enemies 
and persecutors, and do good to the hateful (ver. 43- 
44); show a spirit quite different from that of the 
pagans, and aim at perfection, even as the heavenly 
Father is perfect (ver. 45-48). 

Nor is this all that distinguishes the possessors of 
this true character. Their goodness is not done for 
show and the praise of men (6:1); their charities are 
done in secret, not with flourish of trumpets like the 
hypocrites in the synagogues and streets (ver. 2-4) ; 
their prayers are offered in their room with the door 
shut, not at the street-corners to win reputation for 
piety; are free from vain repetitions, and are from 
the heart (ver. 5-13); when they fast, it is not to be 
seen of men but of the Father who is in secret (ver. 
16-18) ; their treasures are spiritual, laid up in heaven 
(ver. 19-21); they are unselfish and generous (ver. 
22-23); they serve God supremely, realizing that they 


148 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


cannot serve both Him and Mammon (ver. 24) ; they 
trust the providence of God and do not worry (ver. 
25-34); they do not judge others, but see first the 
faults in themselves, attending to the beam before the 
mote (7:1-5); they seek to practise the Golden Rule, 
and walk in the way that leads to life (ver. 12-13); 
they heed the warning to beware of false prophets in 
sheep’s clothing, knowing them by their fruits (ver. 
15-20); they obtain entrance into the kingdom of 
heaven, not because they cry, “Lord, Lord,” but be- 
cause they do the will of the Father in heaven (ver. 21) ; 
and they stand firm and secure against all storms be- 
cause they hear and do the words of Jesus, and are 
founded on the rock (ver. 24-29). This summariza- 
tion—characterization, one might say—of the teaching 
in the Sermon on the Mount is a striking impersonation 
of righteous character from beginning to end. There 
we may see, if we will, what manner of man we ought 
to be, according to the teaching of Jesus.* 

Jesus sketches for us a character portrait of John 
the Baptist, His brave forerunner, who was master of 
circumstances (Luke 7:24), master of himself (ver. 
25), and mastered by God (ver. 26), whom he served 
to the death—a man than whom none greater has been 
born of woman. Then, in speaking of John, the ascetic 
Nazarene, in contrast with Himself (ver. 33-34), He 
mentions what is falsely said about them both, and 
teaches that character is a matter of inwardness, not 
of outwardness; not what man thinks you are, but 
what God knows you are—your real self. 

Jesus reads character at a glance and pictures it in 
a stroke. How He portrays Nathanael in a sentence: 


1 To get the force of this summary, it should be compared point 
by point with the text of the Gospel. 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 149 


“Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” 
(John 1:47). Instantly there rises before us an ideal 
of genuine manhood. We separate Nathanael at once 
from various classes of the Jews, such as the proud 
and pompous Pharisee, the hypocritical and inquisitive 
scribe, the self-righteous priest, or the cunning and 
skeptical Sadducee. A man without guile—true, whole- 
souled, straightforward—the kind of man to make a 
trusted companion of, to cherish as a friend—a man 
to count on. A winsome man this, brought to Jesus by 
Philip, into whose character we also get a glimpse— 
only a glimpse, but revealing like a lightning flash. 
Jesus finds Philip and Philip finds Nathanael. Jesus 
says to Philip, “Follow,” and Philip says to Nathanael, 
“Come and see” (John 1: 43-46). No sooner is Philip 
found than he finds another—a result of his contact 
with Jesus. So to the guilelessness, sincerity, simple 
openness of Nathanael we add the brotherly and un- 
selfish missionary spirit of Philip. 

Let us study this portrait a little further. We may 
well delight to think of Nathanael, with that rare char- 
acter-quality of his, clear at first glance to the spiritual 
insight of Jesus. Sincerity soeaks itself forth so read- 
ily and beautifully. Recall a guileless man, if you 
have been so happy as to have known one. How like a 
benediction it was to look into his frank and open face, 
to see the clear light in his truthful eyes, to feel the 
attraction of his sympathetic nature, receptive and re- 
sponsive, yet with a fine reserve that held aloof all 
impurity, untruth, and evil. Not a soft character, in- 
compatible with manly strength: for notice that first 
designation of Jesus, “a true Israelite.’ That word 
was full of meaning, as the word Christian is when it 
truthfully expresses a man; it meant reverence and 


150 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


obedience, devout piety and devotion to duty—superb 
material of character on which the Master was now to 
put His perfecting touch. We shall appreciate this 
character still more if we contrast it with its opposite— 
aman of guile, craft, duplicity, insincerity, trickery— 
a type so common, which causes much of the unhappi- 
ness of the world. Jesus met so many of this class 
that He must have had joy in Nathanael, who that 
day became a disciple (John 1: 47-51). 

How instantly, too; Jesus characterizes Simon by a 
new name, which was confirmed later on a conspicuous 
occasion. When Andrew brings his brother, Jesus 
gazes at him and says, “You are Simon, the son of 
John; your name is to be Cephas”’ [meaning “Peter” or 
“rock” ] (John 1: 42), a quality of character on which 
to build for His kingdom, as Jesus intuitively saw. 
And how He signalizes James and John by a word, 
surnaming them Boanerges, “sons of thunder” (Mark 
32:17); virile men, to be fishers of men for His king- 
dom. 

Next there flashes before us the picture of Nicode- 
mus, the night-inquirer, that interesting teacher in Is- 
rael who is eager to know for himself something more 
definite about the personality and teaching of this en- 
thusiastic young Galilean who is capturing the imagi- 
nation of the people and exciting the envy and hatred 
of the ecclesiastical party to which Nicodemus himself 
belongs. The Evangelist is a skilful delineator, and 
with the night for background brings out sharply the 
figures—Jesus, calm in the authority and consciousness 
of His unique relationship to the Father, whose will 
He is doing; Nicodemus, a reverent student and ex- 
pounder of the Law and the Prophets, willing to rec- 
ognize this young Jew as a teacher come from God, 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 151 


and to seek light from Him. Jesus reads his character 
as unerringly as He did that of the fishermen He had 
called to follow Him, and instantly touches the lacking 
spot in it. Here was a proud man relying on race, 
ancestry, his own morality, for the building of right- 
eous character; and Jesus teaches him, with apparent 
abruptness, that only the soul reborn of the Spirit has 
the capacity to produce character that is acceptable to 
God and admissible to His Kingdom. He also teaches 
him that sacrifice lies at the basis of true life; that in 
order to give eternal life to man it was necessary that 
the Son of Man sacrifice Himself (John 3: 1-15). 

Thus from the lips of Jesus comes the profound mes- 
sage that righteous character is the product, not of 
the natural man alone, but of the Spirit of God acting 
upon and within the soul. “Ye must be born anew” 
is the law of the divine creation of character capacities. 
This is the spiritual birth, and its source is in the love 
of God, who “so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 
3:16). With this new birth the possibility of Christ- 
like character begins. Faith is the condition of its 
continuance and development unto the full stature of 
manhood in Christ. For the first time, doubtless, Nico- 
demus saw his own character in the mirror of truth. 

In the interview at the well of Sychar, how Jesus 
turns the flashlight of truth upon the Samaritan wom- 
an’s character, so that she sees herself in the pure light 
of His knowledge, sees her sin, and is at the same time 
made to feel that here is a Saviour, even the Messiah 
who reveals Himself to her that He may save her and 
make her a missionary to bring others to Him (John 
4: 16-26). 


152 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


How deftly and beautifully Jesus pictures a contrast 
in character at the supper in Simon’s house, when the 
penitent woman anoints His feet, while the negligent 
host only wonders and criticizes. ‘The woman’s love 
and gratitude exhibit her character in bright light 
against the somber background of the Pharisee’s curi- 
ous carelessness, which led him to forego the ordinary 
courtesies. Character speaks in our actions and in our 
omissions to act alike (Luke 7: 36-50). As Jesus said 
to the cavilling scribes and Pharisees, “Ye offspring 
of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? 
for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak- 
eth. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart 
bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of 
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things’ (Matt. 
12: 34-35). Good and bad character cannot be con- 
cealed. “By their fruits ye shall know them” is the 
test of Jesus (Matt. 16:20). 

In the parable of the sower (Matt. 13), we see the 
effect produced by the truth upon different personalities, 
and the results in character. Given the honest and 
good heart, which receives the word, there will be 
no question as to the character yield. The requisite 
stability and staunchness of the Christian character are 
indicated by Jesus in the words to the man who said, 
“T will follow you, Lord; but let me first say good-bye 
to my people at home.”’ Jesus says to him, ‘‘No one is 
any use to the Reign of God who puts his hand to the 
plough and then looks behind him” (Luke 9: 61-62; 
M.). The character requirements of the Kingdom are 
never lowered to suit man’s convenience. 

The spirit of the character called for in His disciples 
is suggested by Jesus in His instructions to the Twelve, 
in the tenth chapter of Matthew: “I am sending you 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 153 


out like sheep among wolves: so be wise like serpents 
and guileless like doves” (ver. 16) ; patiently serve and 
endure to the end (ver. 22); a scholar is not above his 
teacher, nor a servant above his lord (ver. 24) ; fear not 
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (ver. 
28); he who will not take his cross and follow after 
me is not worthy of me; he who has found his life will 
lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find 
it (ver. 38-39). Christlike character, then, by this 
teaching is to be keenly and alertly wise but rigidly 
upright and always brotherly; is to bear with equanim- 
ity the trials, however severe, that come to the good 
in the path of duty; and is to guard sacredly the prime 
jewel in life’s crown—unselfishness even to the supreme 
point of self-sacrifice. And in this as in all other points, 
Jesus Himself sets the perfect example. 

The inwardness of character as distinguished from 
outward observances intended to enhance reputation 
is strikingly pointed out by Jesus in the interview with 
the Pharisees and scribes who saw His disciples eat 
with unwashen hands, and ask Him why His disciples 
transgressed the tradition of the elders. Jesus makes 
the difference between lip service and heart worship, 
between ceremonial performance and spiritual obedience, 
too plain to be misunderstood. In His clear sight 
dainty fingers are of small account as compared with 
dirty consciences. Guard the heart, for out of it comes 
what defiles character (Matt. 15: 1-9, 18). 

When the disciples are detected in their dispute as to 
who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus intro- 
duces an unprecedented note into the world’s teach- 
ing when He calls to Him a little child, sets him in the 
midst of them and says, “Except ye turn and become 
as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the king- 


154 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


dom of heaven.” ‘The teachableness, ready responsive- 
ness, open-heartedness of the little child—this is the ; 
entrance door to the character which is to inhabit the 
kingdom. Then He goes on to teach that if any man 
would be first, he shall be last and servant of all; and 
that “whosoever shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’”’ 
(Matt. 18: 1-4). Childlike humility lies at the root 
of character victories. The servant spirit contains the 
real ruler, and the humblest and simplest service ren- 
dered humanity in true recognition of brotherhood 
shall not fail of its reward (Luke 9g: 46-48; Mark 
9: 33-37). At any cost to oneself, says Jesus, make 
sure of righteous character which alone shall find place 
in the kingdom of God (Mark 9:43). In case of tres- 
pass, character that is like Christis will seek to gain 
the trespasser by every right means; and forgiveness 
is the signal mark of redeemed character (Matt. 
TOC S-L7,9od, 22). 

Character true and false is set forth in the parable 
of the compassionate king who forgave his servant his 
debt, and the harsh servant who took his debtor by the 
throat ; and the sequel shows what shall befall the man 
of cruel and unjust character’ (Matt. 18: 23-35). The 
sympathy and helpfulness that mark the character which 
Jesus commends and exemplifies are nowhere more 
beautifully brought out than in the parable of the 
Samaritan traveler who took pity on the half-dead 
man left by the robbers on the Jericho Road (Luke 
10: 25-37), while deficiencies of character are revealed 
in the deliciously satirical references to the priest and 
Levite who passed by. The basal principles of this 
character—love to God and neighbor—are taught more- 
over in this same interview of Jesus with the lawyer 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 155 


who came to test Him, and like all others similarly 
bent found himself overmatched. 

In the case of the rich young ruler who could plead 
that he had kept all the commandments from his youth 
up, Jesus detected the fatal flaw in a character that drew 
his love. The requirement of absolute unselfishness 
and surrender of possessions was too great (Matt. 19: 
16-22; Mark 10: 17-22; Luke 18: 18-30). So it has 
been to multitudes of others. In the saying to Martha, 
much misinterpreted, “But one thing is needful” (Luke 
10: 41-42), Jesus teaches the character value of keep- 
ing things in their true relations, and of rightly esti- 
mating the relative importance of the spiritual and the 
material. He illustrates the courteous quality of true 
character in the parable which He speaks to the guests 
at the Sabbath dinner in the house of a chief Pharisee, 
when He observes how they pick out the best places, 
and teaches them what they ought the rather to do, 
closing with the warning, ‘‘For whosoever exalteth 
himself shall be abased; and he who humbleth himself 
shall be exalted” (Luke 14: 7-11). Then He advises 
His host regarding the true spirit of distinterested hos- 
pitality and fellowship, and the kind of company that 
would be gathered if the invitations to a feast were 
issued in that spirit. It is an interesting group of 
characters that results (Luke 14:12-14). The par- 
able of the large supper, to which none of the guests 
originally invited were admitted, reveals how grave 
a defect of character the excuse is, and how easy it is 
to excuse oneself from the highest and best in life 
(Luke 14: 16-24). 

As a lesson in the redemption and re-creation of char- 
acter what could be more illuminating than the teach- 
ing in the parable of the Prodigal Son, whose new char- 


156 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


acter development began when he “‘came to himself” and 
said penitently, “I will arise and go to my Father.” 
The fact of the Father’s infinite love must not be lost 
sight of, however, as the foundation principle empha- 
sized; nor the keen portraiture of the unlovely charac- 
ter of the elder brother (Luke 15: 11-32). When the 
entire teaching of Jesus is summed up, indeed, it is 
seen that in His view Love is the greatest thing in 
character as in life; and the Love of God is the core 
of His revelation. ~ ‘ 
Righteous character is strongly contrasted with un- 
righteous character in Jesus’ pitiless denunciation of 
the scribes and Pharisees, who aroused His passionate 
indignation and anger. They blocked His way. “Woe 
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because 
ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye 
enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that 
are entering in to enter” (Matt. 23:13). They were 
the only people whom He seemed to regard as hopeless, 
because they were too self-satisfied to be teachable, too 
self-righteous to be reachable by the truth. They were 
constantly “laying in wait for him, to catch something 
out,,.of his’;mouth (Luke 11:52; ‘Mark (92) naa 
“There is no cure,” says Frederick W. Robertson, “for 
ossification of the heart.” In Matthew 23 and in Luke 
(11: 37-54) are those scathing summaries of the type 
of character that is a curse to the world, chiefly be- 
cause of its all-embracing and destructive hypocrisy. 
“Woe unto you, hypocrites!” says Jesus, “for ye cleanse 
the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within 
they are full of extortion and excess... Ye out- 
wardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” To His disciples 
He gives the solemn injunction, “Beware of the leaven 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 157 


of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1), 
reémphasizing the need of being on guard against this 
snare set everywhere for the unwary. Desiring them 
to beware also of self-righteousness, twin sister to hy- 
pocrisy, He puts the lesson in the parable which He 
spake to certain ones who trusted in their own right- 
eousness and looked down upon everybody else. The 
character contrasts drawn between the Pharisee and 
the publican tell the story in perfection (Luke 18: 9-14). 

There is another foe to righteous character, not less 
formidable than hypocrisy, against which Jesus gives 
emphatic warning. “Take heed, and keep yourselves 
from all covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not 
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” 
(Luke 12:15). And in the parable which follows He 
describes the rich but foolish epicurean, who lays his 
life plans with sole regard to himself and without any 
“perhaps” in them; the outcome teaching what is the 
end of the man who lays up treasure for himself and 
is not rich toward God, or who fails to gain the riches 
of God (Luke 12:16-21). Speaking on this same 
subject at another time, Jesus said, “No servant can 
serve two masters ... you cannot serve both God 
and Mammon. Now the Pharisees, who were covet- 
ous (fond of money), heard all this and they sneered 
at him” (Luke 16: 13-14; M.). And the multitudes of 
the covetous in all generations have practically done 
the like. While realizing that covetousness corrodes 
character, they have not been willing to give up greed 
of possessions and follow the teaching of Jesus. When 
this is done a new and truly Christian civilization will 
begin, in which character and not money will be the 
determining factor. 

Jesus teaches that those who would possess character 


158 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


like His will seek true greatness by being the servant 
of all (Matt. 20: 26-27) ; will use every talent diligently 
for the good and glory of the great King (Luke 19: 
11-26); will occupy for Jesus till He comes (Luke 
19:13); will be watchful, faithful and wise (Matt. 
24:42-45); will love one another, according to the 
Master’s commandment; and by kindly and generous 
deeds will merit His approval, and prepare for entrance 
into His eternal kingdom (Matt. 25: 31-34). 

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right 
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world.” And the righteous—those who have been 
with Jesus and learned of Him, walking with Him in 
the way of life—shall go away into life eternal ( Matt. 
25 140). 

From this varied material gathered from the Gospel 
records we may gain a fair idea of the Christian char- 
acter as it is set forth in the teaching of Jesus. Identi- 
fying character with the self, it is manifestly a thing 
of growth and development, as is the body which en- 
cases it. Jesus recognizes this growth by an analogy 
in the natural world—a grain of wheat—which is full 
of meaning (Mark 4:28). Using a different meta- 
phor, “Character,” says George Eliot, “is not cut in 
marble—it is not something solid and unalterable. It 
is something living and changing, and may become 
diseased as our bodies do.”’ If the heart be unregenerate 
the character will be unrighteous. Hence the problem 
of humanity: how shall the unrighteous be made right- 
eous? Not by any power that lies within itself, for 
like produces like. “Can an evil tree bring forth good 
fruit?’ asks Jesus, and gives His conclusive answer 
(Matt. 12:35). And His teaching alone solves the 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 159 


problem of righteous beginnings and possibilities: “Ye 
must be born again . . . Except a man be born again 
he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This, however, is 
only the start in the right direction, Character is our 
moral nature in the making, and is affected by every 
moral decision we make, by every good or bad act we 
do. God will not make our character for us, and man 
cannot. God has endowed us with the power to make 
our character good or bad, and the responsibility rests 
with us. Jesus tells us what the loving Father wants 
us to do with this tremendous power and responsibility, 
and how we may realize the Divine purpose. He 
teaches us what will help and what will hurt in our 
character development, points out the elements that are 
good and bad, and promises sympathetic and sufficient 
assistance. Let us look a little further at Christian 
character as it lies in the mind of Jesus and is revealed 
in His life: for this is the kind of character God wants 
us to have. 

In his classic, “Jesus Christ and the Christian Charac- 
ter,’ Professor Francis G. Peabody says there are three 
- great words in the teaching of Jesus which together 
express the moral ideal of the Christian character: 
Righteousness, Love, and Life. The first represents 
especially the prevailing tone of ethical teaching in the 
first three Gospels; the second recalls the more inti- 
mate utterances of Jesus Himself; while the third, 
though appearing throughout the record, is peculiarly 
characteristic of the fourth Gospel. Taken separately 
these words suggest three types of character—one up- 
right but severe, one gentle but soft, and one large but 
vague ; but taken together they forma character rounded 
and complete. 

The teaching of Jesus is insistent on righteousness as 


160 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


one essential of character. “Seek ye first the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33). “Blessed 
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness” 
(Matt. 5:6). This righteousness is softened by the 
quality of mercy: “Go ye and learn what that meaneth, . 
I will have mercy and not sacrifice: for I am not come 
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ ( Matt. 
9:13), with fine irony which the Pharisees doubtless 
understood. He put new meaning into the word, as 
when He says, “Except your righteousness exceed the 
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in 
no case enter into ‘the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 
5:20). To take the word out of its Pharisaic usage 
as the expression of ceremonial and legal authority 
which was bound as a heavy burden on men’s shoulders, 
and to spiritualise it so that it should represent the 
“higher righteousness” which is His ideal—that was 
the task of Jesus. “Rectitude by statute had sup- 
planted righteousness of the heart.” The new right- 
eousness of Jesus searches the heart, as the student of 
the Sermon on the Mount cannot fail to realize. “He 
displaces the righteousness which is hypocrisy, or the 
acting of a part, by the righteousness which is reality 
or the expression of a life.” 

Something more is needed, however, and Jesus finds 
this in Love, which is “the flower of righteousness,” 
and the supreme word in His teaching. Love, in His 
conception of it, however, is not a soft and sentimental 
thing, but includes righteousness, and demands strength 
of will and self-discipline as well as of the affectional 
nature. In stating the first commandment to the scribe 
He shows the nature of the love He has in mind when 
He says, “You must love the Lord your God with your 
whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 161 


mind, with your whole strength.” The second is this: 
“You must love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12: 
29-31). That duty as well as sentiment enters into 
the word as He uses it is clear from His saying, “If 
ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); 
this being an evidence or condition: “If ye keep my 
commandments, ye shall abide in my love’ (John 15: 
10). Repeating the idea, Jesus makes that marvelous 
promise: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: 
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto 
him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). 
What keeping His words meant the disciples knew 
from experience, as they knew what His love meant, 
and it had called for all the virility of character they 
possessed, reinforced by their Master’s commanding 
presence and inspiring Personality. Love, in the inter- 
pretation of Jesus, is “duty done with joy.” “Love to 
man, like love to God,’ says Professor Peabody, “‘is 
not an effervescent, pietistic, indiscriminate affection, 
but the joy of goodness, the passion of sacrifice, the 
beauty of holiness. . . . Christian love rests on Chris- 
tian righteousness. Love does not outgrow duty, it 
grows out of duty, as a flower grows out of its sup- 
porting stalk. Love is mercy, considerateness, sym- 
pathy, self-forgetfulness, service.’ * And this love, 
the most powerful force in the formation of righteous 
character, is centered in a Person—Jesus Christ, who 
came to be and is the life of men.® 

Jesus is Himself the perfect revelation of the char- 
acter of God. In the light of His teaching and example 
let us seek to appraise anew the qualities and values 
of the Christian character. In ideal this is the self 


2 “Jegus Christ and the Christian Character,” p. 


23. 
3 The teaching of Jesus concerning Life will be fected in another 
chapter. 


162 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Christianized. It is the personality, not only loyal to 
Jesus, but stamped indelibly with His image; so that 
as Christ is said to bear the impress of God’s person- 
ality, the Christian may truly be said to bear the impress 
of Christ’s personality. This character gives to human 
life its dignity, nobility and inestimable worth. The 
very height and sublimity of it attract every valiant 
soul, every purity-loving and aspiring nature. They 
who possess it are the conscience, the glory, and the 
safeguard of the society and state to which they belong. 
They cannot be bought or swerved from the right, they 
practise honesty, generosity and brotherliness, refuse to 
bow to the mammon of unrighteousness, and believe in 
_ the practicability of the principles taught by Jesus. 

There is one more vital consideration, touching the 
possibilities of character for the individual. The 
teaching and life of Jesus were crowned by His death. 
When He wore the thorny crown of willing self- 
sacrifice for others, He became the supreme example 
of character for humanity for all time. Jesus Christ is 
not only the incarnation of deity, but the revealer of 
the possibilities of human character when touched by 
the divine. In His own life He taught what character 
might become, and gave the inspiring ideal; so that 
when we would see character at its highest, we must 
look ever to its human-divine manifestation in Jesus. 
But He did more than this. Not only by His life did 
He disclose the possibilities of character; by His death 
on the cross He opened those possibilities to all; 
brought within reach of the humblest the attainment of 
a righteous character here, and the promise of a per- 
fected Christlike character hereafter. 

Character is all that we shall take out of this world. 
The divine purpose is to help us in the development 
of a character molded by the love that is righteousness. 


CONCERNING CHARACTER 163 


Jesus promises His aid, even to the presence of the 
Father and Himself in the loving hearts open to them. 
The work goes on as ceaselessly as the heart-beat in 
every life. It is true that discouragement often besets 
us, because the process obscures clear vision, and we 
cannot easily estimate, day by day, just what kind of 
character we are forming. But Godknows. There isa 
beautiful illustration, that character is like tapestry, 
and we each are weavers of our own little piece of God’s 
great fabric that is to adorn His heavenly habitation. 
But the weaver’s work is on the wrong side, that with 
its seeming mass of shreds and patches and inhar- 
monious colors and purposeless plan is without come- 
liness or beauty or apparent use. The wrong side is 
turned toward earth, the right side toward heaven; 
and that side, which the Master Designer sees, is, 1f 
we are true and faithful workmen, full of delicate 
harmony of color and beauty of design, fit for His pur- 
pose. It is ours to work on, often unwittingly; but 
we too shall sometime see the right and perfected side 
in heaven’s light, and hear the “Well done’ of our 
Lord. The same thought is exquisitely pictured in 
Helen Hunt Jackson’s ‘Parable of Life’: 


“Like a blind spinner in the sun, 
I tread my days; 
I know that all the threads will run 
Appointed ways; 
I know each day will bring its task, 
And, being blind, no more I ask. 


“Sometimes the threads so rough and fast 
And tangled fly, 
IT know wild storms are sweeping past, 
And fear that I 
Shall fall, but dare not try to find 
A safer place, since I am blind. 


164 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


“I know not why, but I am sure 
That tint and place, 
In some vast fabric to endure 
Past time and race 
My threads will have; so, from the first, 
Tho’ blind, I never felt accursed. 


I know God set me here, and still, 
And glad, and blind, I wait His will. 


“But listen, listen, day by day, 
To hear their tread 
Who bear the finished web away, 
And cut the thread, 
And bring God’s message in the sun, 
Thou poor, blind spinner, work is done!” 


CHAPTER FIVE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING SIN 


Though holy in himself and virtuous 

He still to sinful men was piteous, 

Not sparing of his speech, in vain conceit, 

But in his teaching kindly and discreet. 

To draw his flock to heaven with noble art, 

By good example, was his holy part. 

Not less did he rebuke the obstinate, 

Whether they were of low or high estate. 

The love of Christ and his apostles twelve 

He taught, but first he followed it himself. 
—Chaucer’s Good Parson. 


& 


My little children, these things I write unto you, that 
ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the pro- 
pitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the 
whole. world.—First Letier of John, 2: 1-2. 


Jesus is not concerned with Sin, as an abstraction. The 
word, as used not less than forty times in the Epistle to the 
Romans, is used but once in the Synoptic Gospels. Of sins, 
on the contrary, and sinning, and sinful men, Jesus has 
much to say. He traces acts to their sources in the will. 
Jesus sets at the gates of the Kingdom the plain demand for 
a will turned toward righteousness, and a conscience sorry 
for its specific sins—Francis G. Peabody. 


We get our definition of sin from Calvary; sin is any 
unlikeness to the Spirit of Christ, revealed supremely in that 
act of self-sacrifice. ... The fateful reality of the battle 
between love and selfishness, knowledge and ignorance, be- 
tween God and whatever thwarts His purpose, is made 
plain to us in that pierced and blood-stained figure on the 
cross.—Henry Sloane Coffin. 


Jesus was not friendly to publicans and sinners simply 
because they were outcasts, but because he wished to aid the 
sinning whenever they were conscious of their need.—Frank 
P. Graves. 


CuHaPTer Five 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
SIN 


“For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners,” 
said Jesus to the Pharisees who asked His disciples, 
“Why does your Master eat with tax-collectors and 
sinners?’ If one were asked what is the most awful 
fact in human history, the answer would almost cer- 
tainly be, Sin. Sin is the universal curse, the begetter 
of woes, the destroyer of souls. Jesus came to rescue 
from the power of Sin, to save the sinner. What has 
Jesus to teach us concerning Sin? 

Continuing to follow the method of the Master 
Teacher, ‘let us approach the subject just as He ap- 
proaches it, according to the Gospel records. Follow- 
ing through His ministry, we shall study the main 
instances in which Jesus deals with Sin, as He meets 
it in life. 

Let us imagine ourselves, as students once more in 
the School of Jesus, in the large room of the house in 
Capernaum which was the main schoolroom, when there 
was one. The room is thronged with people, among 
them many Pharisees and learned doctors of the Law, 
who have been drawn from Jerusalem by the growing 
fame of the young Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. There, 
in the midst of this inquisitive and in part hostile 
company, sits Jesus teaching. As He is “speaking the 
word” to them, suddenly there comes a novel inter- 


ruption. Wherever Jesus is, there the sick and helpless 
167 


168 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


and crippled will try to be, for He is already known as 
a worker of miracles. So, when the four friends who 
are carrying a paralytic find that they cannot get near 
Jesus on account of the crowd, they adopt a device. 
Ascending to the flat roof they tear up some of the 
light roofing and through the opening lower the pallet 
on which the paralytic lies till he is directly in front of 
the Master. Instantly responding to such faith and 
zeal, Jesus says to the paralytic, ““My son, your sins 
are forgiven.” Singular words, seemingly quite out 
of place. The man wants to be healed of his palsy. 
What have sins to do with the case? The scribes argue 
in their hearts, ““What does the man mean by talking 
like this? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but 
God alone?” Conscious of their arguing to themselves 
in this way, Jesus makes open reply. It takes a miracle 
to cure either body or soul, He will assert His Divine 
power over both. “To let you see the Son of man has 
power on earth to forgive sins,’ He says to the para- 
lytic, “Rise, I tell you, lift your pallet, and go home.” 
And as way is made for him by the awestruck people 
he lifts his pallet and goes off before them all; while 
they, amazed, and many of them filled with fear, glorify 
God who has given such power to men, saying, “We 
have seen strange things to-day; we never saw it on 
this fashion” (Matt. 9:2-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 
5:17-26). This was true. They had seen one of the 
greatest miracles—a sinner forgiven, a man made 
whole spiritually and physically. And thus in concrete 
form Jesus has taught His first lesson to the scribes 
and Pharisees concerning sin and Himself. It is not 
probable that this paralytic was a special sinner. Jesus 
did no violence to human nature in assuming that his 
heart was sinful. Every man before Him had a con- 


CONCERNING SIN 169 


science, and they were all familiar with the Scriptures, 
and knew how from Adam down man had been dis- 
obedient to the law of Jehovah and hence sinful. There 
was not a leader or scribe before Him to whom Jesus 
might not rightly have said, ‘““You too are a sinner, 
and might well ask me to speak forgiveness of your 
sins.’ Thus, in the first instance in which we find 
Jesus introducing the subject He deals with it prac- 
tically. He does not define sin but forgives the sin- 
ner, and in so doing declares that He, the Son of Man, 
has the authority of God. 

The next incident follows straightway. To obtain 
more room, Jesus goes out to the lakeside and teaches 
the multitude. As He is returning to his temporary 
dwelling-place, He sees Matthew (also known as Levi) 
the tax-gatherer, sitting in his collector’s booth, and 
calls him to fellowship, even as He did the fishermen. 
Matthew, moved by the something in this Personality 
that irresistibly drew people to Him, unhesitatingly 
leaves his business and follows Jesus. Then he cele- 
brates the event by giving a large dinner party with 
Jesus and His disciples as the guests of honor, and 
along with them many tax-gatherers and sinners, “for 
there were many of them among His followers.” This 
greatly disturbed some of the scribes and Pharisees, 
whose system of caste was scarcely less rigid than that 
in India, and who were as punctilious about the prep- 
aration of food as they were in the matter of social 
recognition. Eating together was a social function, 
and they murmured, saying to Jesus’ disciples, ‘““Why 
does he eat and drink with tax-gatherers and sinners?” 
And it was on hearing this that Jesus said to them, 
“They that are whole have no need of the physician, 
but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, 


170 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


but sinners to repentance’ (Matt. 9:9-13; Mark 
2 be-17 1) Luke ihive7cae 

Does Jesus mean to say that these self-satisfied 
Pharisees are really the righteous? No; they knew well 
enough the satire in tone and epigram. The self- 
righteous man was of all men most impervious to the 
grace of God. For the man who felt that he was a 
sinner there was hope, for the truth could reach him, 
his heart would respond, he would repent and with sins 
forgiven enter the new-Way which Jesus opened to him. 
So Jesus here declares the purpose of His coming, to 
seek and save the lost. What He thinks of the spiritual 
condition of the critics who profess superior character 
He shows in His words to His disciples, “Except your 
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes 
and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the king- 
dom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). 

It is clear that Jesus always had a tender spot in 
His heart for the sinners and the social outcasts. 
How His graciousness stands out in His treatment of 
the sinful woman who came weeping, as He reclined 
at dinner in the house of Simon, bathed His feet with 
her repentant tears and anointed them with precious 
ointment. After teaching his host a lesson of courtesy 
and hospitality, how beautifully He forgives the erring 
one. Contrasting Simon’s actions with the woman’s, 
He says to Simon, “Therefore, I tell you, many as 
her sins are, they are forgiven, for her love is great.” 
And to her He says, “Your sins are forgiven. Your 
faith has saved you; go in peace.”’ Thus Jesus set an 
example which the world, including His professed fol- 
lowers, has been slow to follow, in the treatment of the 
sinful and the victimized, often more sinned against 
than sinning. And all that His unsympathetic fellow 


CONCERNING SIN Ley 


guests could find to say was, ‘‘Who is this, to forgive 
even sins?” (Luke 7: 36-50). 

In the parable of the tares and the wheat we have 
the first direct teaching as to the origin of sin, its 
nature, and its terrible consequences. Jesus draws a 
vivid picture of the enemy, the devil, stealing forth 
while men sleep and sowing the tares in the world field 
which has been carefully prepared and sowed with good 
seed by the Son of Man. We can see not only the 
mixing of the children of the kingdom and the chil- 
dren of the evil one in this world, but also the harvest 
at the end, and the work of the reapers. The words 
are profoundly solemn and prophetic: “The Son of 
man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather 
out of his kingdom all who cause stumbling and who 
do iniquity, and throw them into the furnace of fire: 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then 
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the king- 
dom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let 
him hear” (Matt. 13: 24-39; 36-43). 

The why of all this—the origin of evil and the 
meaning of it—Jesus does not explain. We know the 
truth of the parable, for we see the good and the bad 
commingled everywhere in the life of the world. And 
Jesus teaches the infinite love of God which leaves to 
the sinful every opportunity to turn and be forgiven, 
even to the end. He teaches also that there is a point 
beyond which the divine compassion cannot extend, 
and pronounces the doom of the impenitent wicked in 
plain terms (Matt. 13: 49, 50; 23:33; 25:46). 

Sin is not something put on from without, but some- 
thing that comes out from within, says Jesus. It is 
not external but internal, not in circumstances but in 
the heart. “There is nothing from without a man, 


172 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


that entering into him can defile him: but the things 
which come out of him, those are they that defile the 
man. For from within, out of the heart of man, 
proceed evil thoughts, adultery, lust, stealing, murders, 
covetousness, malice, deceit, sensuality, envying, slan- 
der, arrogance, blasphemy : all these evil things” (Mark 
7: 21-23). This is the nearest the Teacher comes to 
a catalogue of sins, and they all but two belong in the 
same moral plane and mark the common life when 
lived on its lower levels. 

But while Jesus has no compromise to make with 
sin, He has patience and compassion and pity for the 
repentant sinner, as we have seen. One of the most 
touching episodes recorded is that in which He is 
brought face to face with a woman who, her accusers 
said with evident glee (since they felt sure that at last 
they could bring Him into open rupture with Moses 
and the Law), had been actually caught in her sin. 
Moses said such an offender should be stoned to death: 
what will Jesus say? That is a most striking scene. 
The great painter, Hofmann, has pictured it in one of 
the most remarkable of modern paintings, which hangs 
in the Zwinger in Dresden. He has brought out all the 
evil spirit in the faces of the malignant and spiteful 
scribes and Pharisees, watching, as a cat watches a 
mouse, to catch the Master. Here kneels the woman, 
her head sunk upon her breast, her hair falling to the 
ground as a merciful veil to hide her from her accusers. 
And there stands the Master, in His grace and benig- 
nity, a far look in His eyes, a divine compassion upon 
His countenance. He knows the motives that animate 
these religious leaders, who seek His life because they 
fear His influence and teachings and reject His claims 
to superior authority as the Son of God, the Messiah. 


CONCERNING SIN 173 


But just now He thinks not of them. The awful 
effects of sin press upon Him and sadden His heart. 
Hideous lust stares Him, the pure and perfect One, in 
the face. And the wreck of a soul, the ruin wrought 
by sin, this appeals to Him as of first consequence. 
Now the scene changes. The Pharisees press their 
question, but He seems not to hear. He stoops and with 
His finger writes upon the ground. They cry out for 
an answer. Then He rises and confronts them, in the 
mastery of moral purity and spiritual might which 
compels recognition. The law of Moses, to which 
they have appealed, says that such a criminal is to be 
stoned. Very well. Jesus puts the law in a new 
light. “He that is without sin among you, let him 
cast the first stone.” The judge has spoken, and stoops 
again to His strange writing. Why do they not 
begin to stone the woman? Convicted by their own 
consciences, they go out one by one, beginning at the 
eldest, even unto the last. Think of it! Scribes and 
Pharisees, the elect, children of Abraham, heirs of the 
covenant, custodians as they think of righteousness— 
they convicted of sin! Who, then, can claim to be 
righteous? So the truth goes home. Conscience tells 
every man, no matter what his position or profession, 
that he is still a sinner before the Holy God. Jesus 
appeals confidently to conscience ; and as a result He finds 
Himself alone with the guilty one. Again He rises 
and, fixing those soul-penetrating eyes upon her, asks: 
“Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man 
condemned thee?” And when she says, “No man, 
Lord,” what words of life are those which fall from 
His lips: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no 
more.’ Imagine the hope, the joy of divine forgive- 
ness, the opening promise of redeemed life, that suc- 


174 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


ceed to the despair and hopelessness of a few moments 
before, when the woman saw only the angry and 
relentless faces of her pitiless accusers. Fancy the 
reverent love with which she turns to her Saviour and 
dedicates her life to Him; and you are seeing in imag- 
ination what in millions of instances has been actual 
experience in the history of humanity, as the sinful 
soul, brought into contact with the sinless Saviour, 
has been redeemed, saved, raised out of sin into the 
new life of righteousness (John 8: 3-11). 

Not every one who is convicted of sin is converted. 
Conscience is a true monitor, but men do not always 
obey its mandates. Jesus presently meets the Phari- 
sees again, for they are ever gathering about Him, 
seeking to entrap Him. Because He declares Himself 
to be the light of the world, they accuse Him of bearing 
record of Himself, and a false record. In His reply, 
after asserting that the Father who sent Him bears 
witness of Him, He tells them that they shall seek 
Him, and shall die in their sins, if they believe not that 
He is the Son of God, the Messiah (John 8:24). 
Disbelief in Jesus, therefore, is fatal sin, if persisted in. 
And now Jesus utters a further truth concerning sin, 
when He says, ““Whosoever committeth sin is the serv- 
ant of sin” (John 8:34). Sinis slavery, and the sinner 
is a slave and not a freeman. He has sold himself into 
this slavery, through love of evil, and there is no escape, 
no freedom, except in being made free through the grace 
of salvation, and coming thus into the life of faith and 
obedience and love. 

Facing His enemies, who but Jesus could fearlessly 
place His own character on trial and ask, “Which of 
you convicteth me of sin?’ And having no evidence 
to bring, they did what men are wont to do when they 


CONCERNING SIN 175 


have no case, resorted to violence, and took up stones 
to cast at Him. Thus they convicted themselves (John 
8: 43-46). 

The question as to sin is next raised by the disciples 
in regard to the man born blind. ‘“Teacher, who did 
sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” 
Jesus says neither the man nor his parents; sin was not 
involved—it was to let the power of God be manifested. 
Then He proceeds to give sight to the man. Inherited 
physical imperfections, then, according to the teaching 
of Jesus, do not necessarily involve sin, which lies in 
the moral and spiritual realm, while its consequences 
are often seen in the physical and material realm. 

The Pharisees cavil at this miracle, especially because 
like so many of Jesus’ acts of mercy it was performed 
on the Sabbath day, and call the man before them to 
question him. “How were your eyes opened?’ He 
replies, “The man they call Jesus made some clay and 
smeared my eyes with it and told me, “Go and wash 
them in Siloam’; so I went and washed them, and I 
got my sight.” ‘Where is he?’ “I do not know.” 
They ask him again and get the same answer. Then 
they brought in the question of sin in another form. 
“This man is not from God,” said some of the Phari- 
sees, “for he does not keep the Sabbath.” Others 
said, ““How can a sinner perform such signs?’ ‘They 
were divided on this, and turned to the parents this 
time for light, but got none. “He is of age, ask him,” 
they said, not proposing to brave being put out of the 
synagogue for the crime of confessing Jesus to be the 
Messiah. So again they summon the man, and to 
wreak their anger on some one, bid him “Give God 
the praise; this man, we know quite well, is only a 
sinner.” “I do not know whether he is a sinner; one 


176 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


thing I do know, that once I was blind and now I can 
see.” John Hay has graphically pictured the scene: 


“Fe stood before the Sanhedrim; 

The scowling rabbis gazed at him. 

He recked not of their praise or blame; 
There was no fear, there was no shame, 
For one upon whose dazzled eyes 

The whole world poured its vast surprise. 


“Their threats and fury all went wide; 
They could not*touch his Hebrew pride. 
Their sneers at Jesus and His band, 
Nameless and homeless in the land, 
Their boasts of Moses and his Lord, 

All could not change him by one word. 
‘I know not what this man may be, 
Sinner or saint; but as for me, 

One thing I know,—that I am he 

Who once was blind, and now I see? 


“They were all doctors of renown, 

The great men of a famous town... 
The man they jeered and laughed to scorn 
Was unlearned, poor, and humbly born; 
But he knew better far than they 

What came to him that Sabbath-day;. 
And what the Christ had done to him, 
He knew and not the Sanhedrim.” 


The poor unlearned man teaches the doctors a lesson 
in spiritual perception, taking up their point about sin. 
“God, we know, does not listen to sinners; he listens to 
any one who is devout and who obeys His will. It is 
unheard of, since the world began, that any one should 
open a blind man’s eyes. If this man were not from 
God, he could do nothing.” To which plain truth they 
retort, “And so you would teach us—you, born in sin 
altogether!’ and expel him. But it is only to be met 


CONCERNING SIN EVE 


and welcomed by Jesus, who reveals Himself as the 
Son of Man; whereupon the man with the new sight, 
confessing his new-found faith, says, “I do believe, 
Lord,” and worships Him. 

Then Jesus teaches a lesson to the Pharisees who 
are beside Him and who ask if they are blind. Where 
there is no capacity to know, He tells them, there ts 
no sin, but sin consists in knowing the right and not 
doing it, in seeing and not obeying, in possessing con- 
science but not following it. “If you were blind, you 
would have no sin: but now you say, We see, and so 
your sin remains” (John 9: 1-41). | 

That we are sinners and need constantly the divine 
forgiveness Jesus teaches unmistakably in the prayer 
which He gave His disciples as a model, when they 
asked Him to teach them how to pray after He had 
told them how not to (Matt. 6:5-15). The clause, 
“Forgive us our debts,” in Matthew, is given by Luke, 
“Forgive us our sins” (11:4); while Mark, who does 
not give the full form of the prayer, uses the word 
“trespasses,’ which connotes sin (11:25, 26). The 
word translated “debts” also denotes sin or offence, so 
that we are clearly taught to realize our need of deliv- 
erance from this evil. 

Concerning the nature of sin and sinful acts, Jesus 
clothes His teaching in the unparalleled denunciations 
of the Pharisees. With hypocrisy as the chief and con- 
stant sin, He mentions also preaching without practis- 
ing: “they say and do not” (Matt. 23:3); spiritual 
oppression (ver. 4) ; vanity and self-seeking (ver. 5-7) ; 
blocking the way to the Kingdom by fraud and proselyt- 
ing (ver. 13-15); false teaching, misleading others 
(ver. 16-22) ; tithing the infinitesimals and neglecting 
matters of real weight (ver. 23) ; extortion and excess 


178 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


(ver. 25, 26) ; display of outward righteousness to con- 
ceal inward hypocrisy and iniquity (ver. 27, 28); 
these are sins that lead the Master to ask that terrible 
question, ‘““You serpents! You brood of vipers! How 
can you escape the judgment of hell?” (ver. 33). Nor 
must it be supposed that the Pharisees were sinners 
above all others in these respects. These are sins com- 
mon to all men everywhere in all periods of history; 
found not only among the publicans and sinners, the 
depraved and despised, but as in this case among the 
leading men in the religious and ecclesiastical circles 
of their day and place. 

Jesus further pictures sin in the unfaithful steward 
who deals treacherously with his trust and ill-treats 
those placed under his care (Luke 12:45, 46). He 
declares the necessity of repentance on the part of all 
when, on being told of the fate of certain Galileans 
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, He 
says, “Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners 
above all the Galileans because they suffered such 
things? I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall 
all likewise perish’? (Luke 13:2). Then bringing up 
another illustration in the case of the eighteen upon 
whom the tower of Siloam fell, He teaches that acci- 
dents must not be regarded as divine punishments for 
sin, since these men were not sinners above all men 
that dwelt in Jerusalem. “Except ye repent, ye shall 
likewise perish” (Luke 13:4, 5). It is much easier to 
read divine judgments in what befalls others than to 
recognize our own sinfulness and our need to repent 
and amend. Jesus, therefore, uses these cases to refute 
a common notion and impress the need of individual 
preparation for whatever may come. 

The judgment and doom awaiting the unrepentant 


CONCERNING SIN 179 


and unforgiven sinners, who put off repentance until 
it is too late, are set forth in solemn words: ‘When 
once the master of the house is risen up, and hath 
shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and 
to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; 
and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you 
not whence you are: then shall ye begin to say, We 
have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast 
taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I 
know you not whence you are: depart from me, all ye 
workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth” (Luke 13: 25-28). These words, remem- 
ber, were not spoken to the confessedly sinful people, 
but to the reputable and respectable—pious people, 
whose pretensions to goodness were great, but whose 
hearts were hard and sinful. | 

On the other hand, how beautifully is pictured the 
joy in heaven over the repentance and redemption and 
restoration of the sinner, in that matchless parable of 
the lost sheep, where the loving shepherd is seen seeking 
the lost one until he finds it and brings it back to the 
fold. “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons 
which need no repentance.” ‘That there were any such 
just persons Jesus did not mean to imply. He was 
speaking with fine irony, as they well knew, to those 
Pharisees and scribes who were murmuring against 
Him, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with 
them’ (Luke 15:1-8). Yes, Jesus did receive sin- 
ners and He saved them; and how His heart went out 
after them he showed further in the parable of the 
woman who hunted out the lost coin, and that other 
of the father who watched and waited the home- 
coming of his poor, sinful, wandering boy, and on his 


180 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


return in repentance and sorrow, made glad over his 
son which was lost and found again; while in the self- 
righteous and bitter-hearted elder brother Jesus showed 
the attitude of these very scribes and Pharisees toward 
the sinful and needy world (Luke 15:9, 10; 11-32). 
Let us never forget those words of Jesus, “I say unto 
you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth.” 

While Jesus does not specify particular sins beyond 
what we have seen in our review, He makes an inclu- 
sive sweep in His declaration that “it is easier for 
heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to 
fail;” that divine law of righteousness which He re- 
interpreted and came to fulfil, which is summed up in 
supreme love to God and neighbor, and the practical 
working code of which is the golden rule. Disobedience 
to this law is sin, and the sinner and his fate are typi- 
fied again in the certain rich man who was blind and 
deaf to the needs of Lazarus, who lay in poverty and 
distress at his gate. This was the sin of selfishness 
leading to omission, as that of the Pharisee who went 
up to the Temple to pray was the sin of pride and self- 
righteousness; as the sin of the rich young man who 
came to Jesus was unwillingness to surrender all for 
Him; as that of the servant to whom his lord entrusted 
the pound was a grumbling spirit and a waste of oppor- 
tunity in disregard of duty; as that of the man at the 
wedding feast without a wedding garment was rebel- 
lious self-will; as that of the scribes and Pharisees, 
finally, was outward pretense and piety but inward evil 
of every bitter, even murderous sort. 

It is strangely significant, at least, that in the picture 
which Jesus draws of the judgment when the Son of 
man has come in His glory and the nations are gath- 


CONCERNING SIN 181 


ered before Him, the sins which shall banish those on 
the left hand from heaven are all sins of omission. And 
these sins, moreover, are all failures to meet human 
need in Jesus’ name. MHeinous sin is it to be blind to 
human want and the obligations of human brotherhood. 

Three times more Jesus speaks of sin. The first time 
is in His last talk with the eleven on the night of the 
Supper, when He tells them that they shall suffer 
persecution from the same enemies who were seeking 
His life. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, 
they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for 
their sin” (John 15:22). That is, to natural sinful- 
ness of heart, they now added that of unbelief and 
rejection of their Messiah. The second time is at the 
betrayal, when He says, “Behold, the hour is at hand, 
and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sin- 
ners’ (Luke 14:41). Human sinfulness was now to 
reach its culminating point. In this tragic sin Judas 
had his share, as did the chief priests and the scribes 
and Pharisees, blind leaders of the blind. 

And the last time Jesus speaks of sin is after the 
resurrection, when He has revealed Himself to the 
terrified disciples, and after removing their fear has 
opened their understanding, so that they might see in 
Him the Scripture prophecies fulfilled, and realize the 
purpose of it all—that “repentance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name among all nations”’ 
(Luke 24:47). Thus He committed unto them the 
gospel of salvation from sin—a world-wide salvation to 
meet a world-wide sinfulness. 

Having thus considered what Jesus has to teach, 
directly and in the form of parable or illustration, 
concerning sin, we find that He puts forth no defini- 
tion, no logical theory, no explanation of sin. He as- 


182 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


sumes, without argument, that all men are sinners, and 
speaks of them as “‘lost’’—so lost that He came to save 
them, even at the cost of His own life. The exceeding 
sinfulness of sin lacks no emphasis in His teaching. 
It is not a mere mistake, a superficial defect, a blot on 
character, but a heart disease and a desperate and 
fatal one, curable only by repentance and faith in God 
and His Son, the Saviour (Mark 16: 16; John 3: 36). 
So terrible is sin that Jesus says, “If thy hand or thy 
foot offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; it 
is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, 
rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast 
into everlasting fire’ (Matt. 18:8). The language is 
figurative, but could not be more expressive or solemn 
as to the fatal results of sin unrepented and unforgiven. 

There are certain sins, as Professor Scott points 
out,* which in special degree excite the scorn and anger 
of Jesus. His condemnations are significant, because 
He recognizes these sins as typical and most danger- 
ous. It is remarkable that He says little about the 
grosser sensual vices, never dwelling on them at length. 
He takes for granted the need for personal purity, 
going far beyond common ethics in this regard (Matt. 
5:27); but He was intent on the inward transforma- 
tion which is the only means by which the sensual ap- 
petites can be controlled. The sins which He denounces, 
therefore, are those which involve an inward false- 
hood, a deliberate perversion of will, such as pride, 
arrogance, self-righteousness, cruelty, hypocrisy. ‘“The 
hypocrite is false without knowing it, and it is this 
which makes his condition so hopeless. To take the 
false for the true, to have the light that is in you dark- 
ness, that is moral perdition.” All forms of oppres- 


iF, F. Scott, “The Ethical Teaching of Jesus,” p. 109 f. 


CONCERNING SIN 183 


sion, the exploitation of the weak by the strong, cruelty 
which acts by indirection as well as openly, are sin and 
will receive due punishment (Matt. 18:7). 

Everywhere in this teaching we feel the abhorrence 
of Jesus for sin, which to him signifies the ruin of a 
man’s hope of achieving a righteous character, of real- 
izing the highest possibilities of life. Habitual sinning 
atrophies the spiritual sight. ‘The lamp of the body,” 
says Jesus, “is the eye. So, if your eye is generous, 
the whole of your body will be illumined, but if your 
eye is selfish, the whole of your body will be darkened” 
(Matty; 6722))23;, M.).)With: Jesus the’ technical 
violations of the Law, which had by tradition been 
made to include every trivial act and were regarded as 
equally sinful with the real offences against God and 
man, were of small importance compared with the 
inner motives and thoughts which determine character 
and actions. Thus we find Him constantly warning 
men against the delusive peril of ceremonial cleansing 
which leaves the heart unpurged of evil. Sin within 
cannot be reached that way, but must be exorcised by 
repentance and faith. 

Everywhere in this teaching, also, with the single 
exception of the one class of the self-righteous leaders 
who rejected Him, there is the note of optimism and 
hope. Man is a sinner, but he is salvable. When, like 
the prodigal, he comes to himself and confesses, 
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy son” (Luke 
15:18, 19), he is near the door that leadeth into life. 
When, like the publican in the Temple, he prays, “God, 
be merciful to mea sinner” (Luke 18: 13), the doors of 
forgiveness and love are swinging wide. For it is the 
same Jesus that teaches abhorrence of sin who promises 


184 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


forgiveness of sinners and says, “Him that cometh unto 
me, I will in no wise cast out”? (John 6:37). In the 
words of quaint Giles Fletcher: 


“He is a path, if any be misled; 
He is a robe, if any naked be; 
If any chance to hunger, He is bread; 
If any be a bondman, He is free; 
If any be but weak, how strong is He! 
To dead men life He is, to sick men health; 
To blind men sight, and to the needy wealth; 
Pleasure without loss, a treasure without stealth.” 


CHAPTER SIx 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING SALVATION 


And there were certain Greeks among them 
that came up to worship at the feast. 


Sir, we would see Jesus. Marvel you 

That we forsake Apollo and that maid 

Of Ephesus, fair-haired and chaste, to seek 

A man of Nazareth, a carpenter? ... 

We have seen him, Gardarius, that mad beast 

In whom the passions raged, all uncontrolled, 
Consuming all they touched, by gentleness 

Of this same Jesus, calmed and made a man. 
The gods of Greece are great, and men shall praise 
Their strength and loveliness, immortal, yet 
They taught not men to live as does this carpenter 
Preaching to fisher-folk by Galilee... . 

If he be man and sore beset, these blades 
Shall free, or we will perish at his side; 

If he be God, ah Jew, if he be God! 

Enough, go tell your Master that we wait! 


—Nellie Burget Miller. 


The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was 
lost—Words of Jesus (Matt. 18:11). 


Jesus means us to live a life utterly and absolutely based 
on God—obedience to God, faith in God, and the acceptance 
of the sunshine of God’s fatherhood. He means us to go 
about in God’s way—forgiving our enemies, cherishing kind 
thoughts about those who hate us or despise us or use us 
badly (Matt. 5:44), praying for them. This takes us right 
back into the common world, where we have to live in any 
case; and it is there that He means us to live with God— 
not in trance, but at work, in the family, in business, shop 
and street, doing all the little things and all the great things 
that God wants us to do, and glad to do them because we 
are His children and He is our Father. Above all, He 
would have us “think like God” (Mark 8:33); and to 
reach this habit of “thinking like God” we have to live in 
the atmosphere of Jesus, “with him” (Mark 3:14). All this 
new life He made possible to us by being what He was.— 
T. R. Glover. 


CuHapter Srx 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
SALVATION 


“ZACCHZUS, come down at once, for I must stay at 
your house to-day,’”’ says Jesus on His way through 
Jericho, as He calls the rich tax-gatherer from his 
observation post in the sycomore tree. And as Zac- 
cheus hastens to obey and gives glad welcome to the 
now famous Teacher whom he has been so eager to 
see, Jesus adds, “This day is salvation come to this 
house.” This is His answer to the onlookers who are 
muttering that He has gone to be the guest of a “sin- 
ner.” Zacchzeus meanwhile is making out a pretty 
good case for himself, saying, ‘Lord, I give the half 
of my goods to the poor; and if I have extorted money 
from any man (the Greek indicates the fig trade as the 
opportunity), I give him back four times as much.” 
This marks a good start for the kingdom, and might 
well have put the murmurers to the blush. But there 
is something lacking yet—the one thing needful indeed 
—which Jesus alone can supply, and that is His own 
presence and spirit. With the coming of Jesus into his 
life Zacchzeus becomes a new man. 

Here we have a concrete lesson in salvation, as we 
find it in both the words and action of Jesus. Zac- 
chzeus, though short of stature, is an eminent “sinner,” 
for the chief tax-gatherer must be as marked a man 
as he is a hated one. But Jesus sees in him the possi- 


bilities of spiritual transformation and of service and 
187 


188 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


summons him, Then He accompanies the despised lit- 
tle man home amid the jeers of the people, and after 
announcing in their hearing that He carries salvation 
with Him, makes this pregnant declaration, ‘‘For the 
‘Son of man has come to seek and save the lost” (Luke 
19:1-10). He has saved one of them before their 
very eyes. To bring salvation to sinners—that is why 
He came; to make the salvation of a world possible— 
that alone explains His mission. 

Only one other time, however, does Jesus use this 
word in the Gospel records. ‘That is when He says 
to the Samaritan woman, “Salvation comes from the 
Jews” (John 4: 22).* But just as He was always deal- 
ing with character, while He did not use that specific 
word, so in this case, while He does not employ the 
word “salvation”? He is always engaged in the work. 
He occasionally uses the word “‘save,’’ but commonly 
expresses salvation in terms of “life” or “eternal life” ; 
while the characteristics and moral and spiritual re- 
quirements of the ‘‘saved life” are the same as those 
of the “kingdom of heaven.” 

The word salvation is used frequently in the New 
Testament outside of the Gospels, referring commonly 
to Christ, who “being made perfect, became the author 
of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 
5:9). Inthe Old Testament it is constantly found in 
the Psalms and Prophets, and with this usage Jesus 
was thoroughly familiar. He knew therefore the scrip- 
tural and traditional significance of the word and the 
national ideals wrapped up in it. In His teaching He 
had to put a new content into the idea, while taking 
something of the old away from it. Perhaps this was 


1 The word “salvation” is used only four other times in the 
Gospels, and all of these in Luke: twice by Zacharias (1: 69, 77); 
once by aged Simeon (2: 30); once by John the Baptist (3: 6). 


CONCERNING SALVATION 189 


why He used a different word. Salvation with Him 
means a new way of life, and He Himself is that 
Way, as He declares (John 14:6). His own life 
shows what a saved life is, and has set the peerless 
ideal and example for all time. The Hebrew word 
translated “salvation” 117 times in the Old Testament 
means “safety” or “ease,” and commonly refers to 
safety from the enemies of Israel, and to the special 
favor of Jehovah, in whom Israel trusted for deliver- 
ance and protection. It had a national and material 
meaning, and contained the hope and expectation of the 
reestablishment of the throne of David and the uni- 
versal reign of the chosen people under the looked-for 
Messiah. Jesus had to undertake the prodigious task of 
substituting the moral and spiritual ideal for the earth- 
ly and material. He must make it clear that the estab- 
lishment of the kingdom of God, the work which the 
Father had sent Him to do, was something entirely dif- 
ferent from the realization of the predictions of the 
ancient prophets and the hopes and dreams of His own 
people. He might well foresee the end of such an ad- 
venture. What is salvation, then, as it lies in the 
teaching and example of Jesus? 

The Gospel records tell us that when Jesus heard 
that John had been arrested, He began to repeat John’s 
text, saying, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand” (Matt. 4:12, 17). Mark says, “Repent 
and believe in the gospel” (1:15). The Greek word 
means “change your mind,” and this is the first step 
toward salvation. What John the Forerunner meant 
by “repentance” is shown to a degree in the account 
of his dealings with the various classes of people who 
came to him for baptism, including even a number of 
the scribes and Pharisees. What he demanded of them 


190 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


as a precedent to the “remission of sins,” covered under 
that general term repentance nothing less than peni- 
tence for sin, confession by act, fruits of virtue and 
goodness instead of mere profession and pretence, gen- 
erous sharing of possessions, honesty in dealings, a 
spirit that would not practise extortion or lay false 
charges but would foster contentment ( Matt. 3: 1, 5-9). 
The records do not tell what Jesus preached under His 
call to repent, but since in a sense He took up John’s 
preaching work it is not likely that He was more 
lenient in His moral requirements, however differently 
He might have phrased His message or uttered it. 
These are characteristics which belong to a reformed 
and redeemed life, and of such is the kingdom of 
heaven. The one inclusive requirement which Jesus 
will add is that of righteousness, His great word next 
to Love. 

As Jesus deals with individual sins, so He deals with 
individual salvation. He came to save men, and to do 
that He must first reach their wills, so that they may 
have minds to change, away from disobedience and un- 
righteousness toward obedience and God. Salvation 
in its deepest meaning is to bring the wandering, bank- 
rupt boy back to his Father’s house. In the far coun- 
try he was lost, hopeless; but there came a stirring 
within—the Spirit that prompts in the new birth—and 
with the sense of penitence came the change of mind, 
the will to act, and all that followed until the restora- 
tion to sonship was complete (Luke 15: 11-32). How 
could Jesus teach the salvation of a soul more beauti- 
fully or plainly than in that parable? 

Repentance, regeneration, faith—these mark the 
progress in the saved life. Faith, or belief in Him, is 
one of the essential requirements. In the parable of the 


CONCERNING SALVATION 191 


sower, Jesus says of the wayside hearers, “Then cometh 
the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, 
lest they should believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). 
As to faith’s part in salvation, teaching could not be 
stronger. Note the repetition as to its necessity and 
Fesulbina) Ohn2 605, Wyld, 203.5: 24; 

Jesus implies, says Professor Glover, that “when a 
man 1s saved, he is God’s again, and God is glad at 
heart. As for the man, a new power comes into his 
heart, and a new joy; and with God’s help, in a new 
spirit of sunshine, he sets about mending the past ina 
new spirit and with a new motive—for love’s sake 
now. When the Good Shepherd goes seeking the lost, 
he goes with Him. Christian history bears witness, in 
every year of it, to what salvation means, in Jesus’ 
sense. To achieve this for men is His purpose; and in 
order to do it, His first step is to induce men to re- 
think God. Something must be done to touch the 
heart and to move the will of men, effectively; and He 
must do it.” That means the cross—that opens the 
heart of God to man and brings the heart of man in 
answering love to God. 

Salvation is not something to be attained in the fu- 
ture, or to be regarded merely as an escape from the 
penalty of sin. It is not a synonym for “conversion,” 
the point of turning. The life of discipleship through 
faith in the Son of God is the “saved life,” and this 
begins here, the moment the saving contact with Jesus 
comes. This comes through the Spirit, as Jesus teaches 
Nicodemus, but how it comes escapes human discern- 
ment, like the source of the blowing wind (John 3:8). 
The effort to confine this experience to certain def- 
nite forms has caused much confusion and wretched- 
ness, but it finds no countenance in the teaching of 


192 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Jesus. He forgives sins and saves the sinners, but says 
nothing as to the manner or nature of the inner change 
that must take place. The essential point is that it 1s 
inner and spiritual, not outward and ceremonial. And 
the new-born at once enters into the fellowship of the 
living Way, the true discipleship that means self-denial, 
cross-bearing, and following. In this Way he shall 
realize the paradox of saving his life by losing it for 
Jesus’ sake (Matt. 16:24, 25). 

We may get a further idea of the salvation effected 
by Jesus if we take some concrete examples where we 
can see the results of companionship with the Master. 
We realize that salvation is not a single experience but 
a continuous life-process; that it means not only a life 
saved from but unto—from sin unto righteousness. 
Note its development in Peter and John, originally fel- 
low-fishermen on Galilee. Picture them as they were, 
young and full of manly strength, on that day when 
Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me!” and their new careers ~ 
began. ‘Trace those careers on through the records. 
Jesus reads the abilities and powers latent in them, 
makes them His personal companions, pupils and 
friends, and educates them as only He can. Hear 
Peter say, after the miraculous draft of fishes, as 
he falls at Jesus’ knees, “Lord, leave me; I am a sinful 
man’’—a recognition of himself in the presence of a 
purity and personality such as he had never seen before 
(Luke 5:8). Turn to the Acts of the Apostles then, 
and read that masterly sermon which Peter preached in 
Solomon’s portico, after he and John had healed the 
lame man at the Gate Beautiful. Hear how in his 
closing words to the awestruck multitude he sounded his 
Master’s own note of salvation: “It was for you first, 
children of the covenant, that God raised up his Serv- 


CONCERNING SALVATION 198 


ant, and sent him to bless you by turning each of you 
from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:26). That put the 
two apostles into jail for overnight, and next morning 
the ecclesiastics, including the high priest and all his 
kindred, gathered in council and had the men in before 
them to answer questions; the first one being the very 
same question that was put to Jesus in the same city by 
about the same crowd of rulers in the beginning of 
His ministry, and very likely heard then by Peter, “By 
what authority have you done this?” The promise of 
Jesus, that if they were ever brought before councils or 
kings or rulers they need not fear, for the Holy Spirit 
would give them words to speak, was now made good; 
for Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit,’ made his de- 
fense so boldly and ably that all marveled, perceiving 
that these were uncultured and ignorant persons; but 
they recognized them as having been companions of 
Jesus (Acts 4: 1-14; M.). Read on through the fas- 
cinating story, and realize that this was the same 
Simon Peter of the old fishing days, but “he had been 
with Jesus.” Doubtless it was Peter who furnished 
Mark with the material for the story of Jesus told in 
that shortest and most graphic of the Gospels. And 
his closing words, in his last General Letter, are indic- 
ative of the old educational habit, as he enjoins his 
fellow disciples to “grow in the grace and knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the 
glory now and to the day of eternity” (II Peter 3: 18; 
M.). 

What a contrast, too, between John, surnamed by 
Jesus Son of Thunder, and John the Evangelist, whose 
Gospel reveals the heart-throbs of the Son and the all- 
embracing Love of the Father, and has been the com- 
fort and solace of humanity through the centuries ; 


194 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


whose ‘‘Love Letter,’ as his First Epistle is called, re- 
veals what he learned from his Teacher even more 
intimately than his Gospel does; while his marvelous 
visions on Patmos have made the Revelation a book by 
itself. His transformation came through the Teacher 
whom he saw, when he came to write his Gospel, as the 
true Light, the Word made flesh, “full of grace and 
truth?! (John t'0, 14). 

There was one other tax-gatherer called by Jesus as 
a disciple: Matthew the Evangelist, whose name leads 
all the rest as we open our Bibles, and whose Gospel 
deserves its primal position in the New Testament. 
Jesus called Matthew, like the others, not because he 
was a man with a past but because he was a man with 
a future. “When Jesus had wrought His gracious 
work in the soul of Matthew,” says J. W. G. Ward,? 
“we can see the keen look of joy in his face, as he left 
the toll-house and the sordid business in which he was 
engaged. The beginnings of the Christian life are 
supposed by some to mean the end of all that gives 
rise to gladness and hope, but as John Masefield has 
shown in ‘The Everlasting Mercy,’ the conversion of 
Saul Kane, the poacher-roué, was truly the birth hour 
of delight and joy. 


“T did not think, I did not strive, 

The deep peace burnt my me alive; 

The bolted door had broken in, 

I knew that I had done with sin. 

I knew that Christ had given me birth 

To brother all the souls on earth, 

And every bird and every beast 

Should share the crumbs broke at the feast. 


2 “The Master and the Twelve,” p. 143. 


CONCERNING SALVATION 195 


The station brook, to my new eyes, 
Was babbling out of Paradise; 
The waters rushing from the rain 
Were singing Christ has risen again. 
I thought all earthly creatures knelt 
From rapture of the joy I felt.” 


Multitudes of the saved can appreciate that feeling 
and what the beginning of that new life means, though 
the experience is as varied as personality and tempera- 
ment. What Jesus did for these men He seeks to do 
for all who will come to Him in the only way that 
can make their lives right with God. It is because He 
sees the hope of salvation in all sorts and conditions 
of men that He mingles with them regardless of the 
prejudices and criticisms of those who hold themselves 
superior in piety and estate. He incurs the reputation 
of “divine, disreputable friendships’ with society out- 
casts, and the odium of being called “a glutton and a 
wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners’ (Matt. 
II: 19), not because He likes them as they are, but 
because He sees them as they may be, and finds in 
them a responsiveness to His teaching which He does 
not find in those who are tight-sealed in their self- 
righteousness. No sinner is in hopeless case so long 
as he is conscious of his need of salvation. “Jesus be- 
lieved in the divine possibilities of divinely changed 
men,” says Dr. Coffin. “He is as confident that He 
can conform us to His likeness, as that He Himself is 
at one with His Father.” 

Jesus teaches unmistakably that salvation is to be 
found in Him. He says, “I am the door, by me if any 
man enter in he shall be saved” (John 10:9). He says 
to the Pharisees, “I am the light of the world: he that 
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 


196 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


the light of life.’ “If ye abide in my word,” He says 
to the Jews who had believed Him, “then are ye truly 
my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free. . . . Every one that committeth 
sin is the bondservant of sin. . . . If therefore the Son 
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 
8:31, 32, 34, 36). Freedom from sin and its slavery 
is salvation. And on another occasion He says, “This 
is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth 
the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life” 
(John 6:40). Put this with the supreme love declara- 
tion in John 3:16. The very mission of Jesus is to 
call sinners to repentance, that they may become mem- 
bers of the kingdom of heaven and have fellowship with 
God (Mark 2:17). And the freedom which He gives, 
the freedom of the truth, means not only a life saved 
from the slavery of sin, but saved unto love of the 
good, the beautiful and the true; saved from dwarfed 
and distorted development unto the full stature of man- 
hood in Christ Jesus; saved from narrowed limitations 
unto full capacity to appreciate and enjoy God’s world; 
such delight in it as Jesus had when the flowers bloomed 
for Him, the birds sang to Him and all nature was 
vocal with praise, and when little children nestled in 
His arms. To come to Him is to experience the truth 
so finely expressed by the poet Faber: 


“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, 
Like the wideness of the sea; 
There’s a kindness in His justice, 
Which is more than liberty. 
For the love of God is broader 
Than the measure of man’s mind; 
And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind. 


CONCERNING SALVATION 197 


“But we make His love too narrow 
By false limits of our own; 

And we magnify His strictness 
With a zeal He will not own. 

If our love were but more simple, 
We should take Him at His word; 

And our lives would be all sunshine 
In the sweetness of our Lord.” 


“The victory over sin is a permanent feature of 
Christian experience,” says Professor Glover. “Look 
at the freedom, the growth, the power of the Christian 
life—where do they come from? All these things— 
peace, joy, victory and the rest—follow from the tak- 
ing away of sin. And all this is the work of Jesus. 
It is Jesus who has changed the attitude of man to God, 
and by changing it has made it possible for God to 
do what He has done. If God, in Paul’s phrase, 
hath shined in our hearts (II Cor. 4:6), it was Jesus 
who induced men to take down the shutters and to 
open the windows.” 

The underlying source of sin is the disobedient will 
of man, which is out of harmony with the divine will. 
Jesus seeks to redeem man by restoring the harmony. 
He emphasizes the exceeding sinfulness of sin and 
shows how it destroys man’s relationship with God, 
as we have seen in our study of His teaching concern- 
ing sin, but He also recognizes the boundless possibili- 
ties of restoration. Because man is lost Jesus came to 
rescue him; because he is a sinner but salvable Jesus 
will save him (John 12:32). Sin’s problem of despair 
is solved by Jesus’ gospel of salvation. This salvation 
is ethical and practical, and has to do with everyday 
conduct. As sin is a heart-disease, which only the 
grace of God can cure, so salvation is a heart-restora- 


198 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


tion which only Jesus can effect (Mark 7: 21-23; Matt. 
9:6). Teaching the infinite importance and worth of 
the individual soul as no other Teacher ever taught it 
(Matt. 16:26), Jesus seeks to awaken in men the sense 
of sin which will make penitence, faith and forgiveness 
possible; so that they may give up their sin, turn to 
obedience to the will of God, and be fit for the king- 
dom of heaven. Salvation through repentance, regen- 
eration, faith and forgiveness—these are the great 
words that fall from the lips of Jesus. 

Thinking now of the saved life in terms of the 
Kingdom, which is a central theme in the teaching of 
Jesus, we note that He has much to say regarding its 
responsibilities, duties, and service. The qualities of 
righteous character which it demands have been depicted 
in the study of that subject in a previous chapter, and 
these therefore need not be repeated here, though 
they must not be forgotten. We may allude in addi- 
tion to the call for open allegiance (Luke 9: 26); 
steadfastness (Luke 9:57), and obedience, doing the 
will of the Father (Matt. 7:21). Service is a key- 
note, beautifully taught in those words to the ten dis- 
ciples moved with indignation against the other two 
whose mother had asked for their preferment in the 
kingdom: “You know the rulers of the Gentiles lord 
it over them, and their great men overbear them: not 
so with you. Whoever wants to be great among you 
must be your servant, and whosoever wants to be first 
among you must be your slave; just as the Son of man 
has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his 
life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20: 25-28; M.). 
The dignity of the humblest deed done in Jesus’ name 
is taught in the washing of the disciples’ feet, together 
with the true humility: “Do you know what I have 


CONCERNING SALVATION 199 


been doing to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, 
and you are right: that is what I am. Well, if I have 
washed your feet, I who am your Lord and Teacher, 
you are bound to wash one another’s feet; for I have 
been setting you an example, that you should do what 
{ have done to you. Truly, truly I tell you, a servant 
is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger 
greater than he who sent him. If you know all this, 
blessed are you if you really do it” (John 13: 12-17). 

In the teaching of Jesus there is no such thing as 
salvation by proxy; each individual soul must be saved 
by itself (Luke 9: 23). This does not mean that Jesus 
does not teach the duties of social relationships and 
service. He emphasizes the sacredness of marriage and 
home life, giving woman a new place in the world’s 
teaching (Matt. 19:5, 6); together with obedience to 
parents (Luke 2:51), impressing the commandment 
to honour father and mother (Mark 7:9-13); then, 
in that striking picture of the final assize, when the 
Son of man comes in His glory and all the angels with 
Him, and He sits on the throne of His glory to judge 
the nations gathered before Him, Jesus teaches that the 
inheritors of the kingdom are those who have shown 
the virtues of human kindness and helpfulness, minis- 
try to those in need and distress, hospitality and loving 
service, and done this without consciousness of doing 
anything unusual and without thought of receiving re- 
ward or recognition (Matt. 25: 30-40). At the same 
time, this was not done as collective goodness or serv- 
ice, but as the fruitage of the individual life that had 
found salvation through repentance and faith in the 
Son of God, and thus become imbued with the char- 
acteristics and spirit of the kingdom. 

This teaching of Jesus concerning salvation touches 


200 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


humanity at all points. It is not theory, it is teaching 
that can be put into immediate practice to-day, as it was 
in Galilee. Regeneration unto spirituality, repentance 
unto righteousness, faith unto eternal life, strength unto 
service, hope unto immortality—these are among the 
beatitudes included in this Good News—the best that 
ever came from the heart of God to the sinful but 
yearning heart of man. In this teaching is Love cen- 
tralized, surrounded by faith, mercy, kindly deeds, all 
the graces that mark the ideal of character. In the 
life and example of Jesus His teaching is perfectly set 
forth. In His death on Calvary, the Christ crucified 
as a willing sacrifice, in order that He might become 
the Saviour of the world, His life becomes effective 
unto salvation to all who will believe. 

This, then, is Jesus’ teaching of salvation. Ifa sin- 
ner, it says you may be saved—this hour, if you will 
hear His call and follow Him. If a self-righteous 
Pharisee, this teaching shows you your condemnation 
unless you repent and change your mind. If a weak 
disciple, it reveals the source of divine strength; if 
tempted of evil, the way of resistance; if mourning for 
sin, the promise of comfort; if sincerely striving to do 
the Father’s will, it holds before you the crown of life. 
It is a joyous Gospel! Jesus teaches joy and peace as 
kingdom realities for His true disciples. Men should 
mourn for their sins, but should not have a mournful 
religion. Nothing should eclipse the abiding joy which 
Jesus intends His followers to have to the full (John 
15:11). ‘Why art thou always smiling, Deicolus?” 
asked his friend of one of the early Christians. ‘‘Be- 
cause,” he answered, “no one can take my God from 
me!” 


CHAPTER SEVEN 


THE TEACHING ‘OF JESUS 
CONCERNING PRAYER 


Lord, what a change within us one short hour 
Spent in Thy presence will avail to make! 
What heavenly burdens from our bosoms take! 

What parched grounds refresh as with a shower! 

We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; 

We rise, and all, the distant and the near, 
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear; 
We kneel, how weak! we rise, how full of power! 
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, 

Or others, that we are not always strong— 

That we are overborne with care— 

That we should ever weak or heartless be, 

Anxious or troubled—when with us is prayer, 
And joy and strength and courage are with Thee? 


—Richard Chenevixn Trench. 


The act of praying is the very highest energy of which 
the soul is capable—Hartley Coleridge. 


Ten minutes spent in Christ’s society every day; aye, two 
minutes, if it be face to face and heart and heart, will make 
the whole life different—Heury Drummond. 


I fell into the habit of talking with God on every occasion. 
I talk myself asleep at night, and open the morning talking 
with Him.—Horace Bushnell. 


O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire Thee with our 
whole heart; that so desiring we may seek and find Thee; 
and so finding Thee may love Thee; and loving Thee, may 
hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us—Anselm 


(1033-1109). 


Cuartrer SEVEN 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
PRAYER 


“FaTHER, the hour is come,”’ said Jesus, lifting up his 
eyes to heaven; “glorify thy Son, that thy Son also 
may glorify thee.” As we review the Gospel story 
from the scene of the baptism at the Jordan to the cross 
on Calvary, one of the features that invariably attracts 
our attention, as it stamped itself indelibly upon the 
hearts and memories of His inspired biographers, is 
the prayer-life and teaching of Jesus. Here we see the 
closeness of the communion between the Son and His 
Father, the intimacies too deep for words, the reality 
of prayer as it draws upon the divine reservoirs of 
sustenance, refreshment and power. 

Let us follow the Gospel record and learn what 
Jesus has to teach us both by example and precept con- 
cerning prayer. We first see Him praying just after 
He had been baptized by John, and while He was in 
that act the heaven opened and the Holy Spirit de- 
scended upon him in bodily form like a dove, and a 
voice from heaven said, “Thou art my beloved Son; in 
thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3: 21-23). Then, after 
He is plunged into the midst of His arduous work of 
teaching and healing, we are given a revealing picture 
of Him, rising a great while before day and going out 
to a desert place and praying; while His disciples fol- 
low Him presently to tell Him all the people are seek- 
ing Him (Mark 1: 35-37). We are taken with Him 

203 


204 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


up the mountain-side, where He spends the night in 
prayer before making His final appointment of the 
Twelve who are to be His closest companions, and 
whom He named apostles (Luke 6:12, 13). Again, 
we see Him leaving the Twelve in the boat while He 
goes up into the mountain to pray (Matt. 14: 23; Mark 
6:46). Wesee Him at Cesarea-Philippi, engaged in 
prayer just before He asks the momentous question, 
“Who say ye that I am?’ (Luke 9:18). In all the 
great moments of His life He prays. He takes Peter 
and James and John with Him and goes up into 
the mountain to pray, and we read that as He was 
praying the fashion of His countenance was altered, 
His face shone as the sun, and He was transfigured 
before them (Luke 9:28, 29). In the last meeting 
with His “own,” in the upper room, He offers the 
“intercessory prayer,” as it has been named, a prayer 
that is a heart-outpouring to the Father in a tran- 
scendent hour ; that cannot be understood save by those 
who know by experience what the communion of prayer 
is; that has suffered much from interpreters; but that 
has never yet been taken at its full meaning and in 
honest seriousness by the great body of those who 
profess to believe in and follow Him (John 17: 21, 22). 
Then He comes to the Garden, and in the agony of 
that final hour of struggle and self-victory He bids 
the chosen Three “sit ye here, while I go and pray 
yonder.” We hear the heart-rending cry, as He falls 
on the ground, “Abba, Father, if it be possible let this 
cup pass away from me,” with the sublime conclusion, 
“nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt’? (Matt. 
26: 36-39). And as He hangs on the cross He prays, 
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they 
do” (Luke 23:34); true to His teaching, love your 


CONCERNING PRAYER 205 


enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them 
that persecute you and despitefully use you (Matt. 
Big tg uke 7 27,25): 

Jesus not only thus shows prayer as a sustaining 
power in His own life and sets the example of it be- 
fore us, but gives it important place in His teaching. 
He prays not only for Himself but for others. The 
little children are brought to Him that He “should put 
His hands on them and pray” (Matt. 19:13). He 
tells Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has claimed the right 
to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that 
your faith may not fail; and you in turn must be a 
strength to your brothers” (Luke 22: 31, 32; M.). He 
says, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another Comforter’ (John 14:16). He prays not 
only for His immediate disciples but for all those who 
shall follow (John 17:20). 

Jesus teaches prayer. He teaches how not to pray 
as well as how to pray. Bad examples had been set 
by the religious leaders of the people, and these ex- 
amples have to be replaced by something truer and 
better. In the Sermon on the Mount He takes this up, 
along with other matters which need correction, and 
speaks frankly: “When you pray, you must not be 
like the hypocrites, for they like to stand and pray in 
the synagogues and at the street-corners, so as to be 
seen by men; I tell you truly, they do get their reward. 
When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, 
pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father 
who sees what is in secret will reward you. Do not 
pray by idle rote like pagans, for they suppose they will 
be heard the more they say; you must not copy them; 
your Father knows your needs before you ask him.” 
Then, in answer to the request of His disciples, “Lord, 


206 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


teach us how to pray,’ He says, “After this manner 
pray ye: 


‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ ” 


Then He adds, “For if you forgive men their tres- 
passes, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 
But if you forgive men not their trespasses, neither 
will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6: 
5-15). Luke gives a slightly different version, abbre- 
viated but the same in idea (11: 1-4); and follows 
with a parable on the prayer of importunity, and the 
need of realizing that the heavenly Father wants to 
be asked, since that is the necessary condition to recep- 
tivity (11: 5-13). 

Jesus gives another illustration of the wrong and 
right kind of prayer in the case of the Pharisee and the 
publican (Luke 18:10). The man with the short, 
penitential and confessional prayer went down to his 
house accepted by God. The prayer which thanks God 
“that I am not as other men” deserves the contempt 
of both God and man. Jesus tells a parable about the 
need of always praying and never losing heart, showing 
that if the unjust judge who has neither reverence for 
God nor respect for man sees justice done to the 
wronged widow in order to stop her from pestering 
him further, surely God will avenge his own elect 
(Luke 18: 1-8). When He sees the throngs eager 
to hear the good news, moved with compassion because 
they fainted and were scattered as sheep unshepherded, 





CONCERNING PRAYER 207 


Jesus says to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plente- 
ous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the 
Lord of the harvest that he send forth labourers into 
his harvest” (Matt.9: 38). This instructs the disciples 
to pray for a definite object and to offer united prayer. 
He teaches the close connection between faith and 
prayer, putting strong emphasis on His words: 
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye 
desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and 
ye shall have them.” This follows His urgent appeal 
to His disciples to have faith in God and His astound- 
ing declaration as to what an absolutely undoubting 
faith could accomplish. At this same time He teaches 
that if one has anything against anybody, he must 
forgive him before praying if he expects the Father in 
heaven to forgive him (Mark 11:24, 25). When the 
sleepy disciples could not keep awake in Gethsemane 
He enjoined them to “watch and pray, lest ye enter 
into temptation” (Mark 14:38). And in speaking of 
the terrible events that shall precede the coming of the 
Son of man with power and great glory, He magnifies 
prayer, saying, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, 
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these 
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before 
the Son of man” (Luke 21:36). Such is the place 
and power of prayer as given in the teaching of Jesus. 

As we review this teaching, the immediate feeling is 
that prayer was normal and natural to Jesus, a very 
part of His life. His conscious relationship to the 
Father made constant communion with Him a delight 
and gladness. Prayer was the connecting wire that 
kept Him in communication with the Unseen but not 
Unknown. Prayer was of course not a strange thing 
to His disciples, for its origin is as old as mankind; 


208 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


but as with everything else He touched, so with prayer: 
Jesus made it new to them in its reality and its direct 
applications. “Prayer is and remains the native and 
deepest impulse of the soul of man,” as Carlyle says, 
but it is an impulse that needs to be taught and guided, 
and Jesus gives it right direction. Worship and prayer 
in some form are universal, and in all lands and ages 
and among all peoples, civilized and uncivilized, human 
desire has reached out toward the something higher. 
Man’s attempts to pray if recorded would make a pain- 
ful and pathetic chapter of human history. Jesus makes 
God known as a loving Father to whom His children 
can come freely with their thanksgiving and their re- 
quests, who is not only ever ready to hear them but 
desirous to have them come, and who will grant what 
He knows to be for their highest good. 

Jesus, as we have learned, lays bare the hypocrisy 
of the prayers that are made to be seen and praised of 
men, and leaves no standing ground for the self-right- 
eous. Sincerity is absolutely essential if the prayer is 
to rise above the earth level. Nothing is needed for 
effectual prayer but the coming into contact of a sin- 
cere soul and God. Jesus furnishes the vital point of 
contact. There is no required intermediary, no set 
form, only the outgoing of the soul. We shall not 
get beyond the words of James Montgomery’s hymn: 


“Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, 
Uttered or unexpressed— 

The motion of a hidden fire, 
That kindles in the breast. 


“Prayer is the burthen of a sigh, 
The falling of a tear— 

The upward glancing of an eye, 

When none but God is near. 


CONCERNING PRAYER 209 


“Prayer is the simplest form of speech 
That infant lips can try— 
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach 
The majesty on high. 


“O Thou by whom we come to God— 
The life, the truth, the way! 
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod; 
Lord, teach us how to pray!” 


But while the inestimable privilege of prayer is made 
so free by the graciousness of the Father in heaven, 
there is nothing in the teaching of Jesus to imply that 
it can be had in a haphazard way or by the careless. 
The prayers of Jesus so impressed His close followers 
that, although they had been taught prayers from child- 
hood, they asked Him to teach them to pray, bringing 
from Him the prayer that in its comprehensiveness 
and simplicity has been the marvel as well as the model 
during twenty centuries, and shall be to the end of the 
ages. Men will ever need to learn to pray, and to 
understand the meaning of true prayer as spiritual 
communion with God. It is through prayer that He 
becomes real. It is a wonderful thing when a Christian 
becomes so imbued with the prayer spirit of Jesus that 
he knows prayer as “an habitual attitude and not 
simply an occasional act;’”’ knows it, not as “a mechani- 
cal repetition of verbal forms, but a strong and secret 
uplifting of the heart to the Father of all.” What 
prayer may become as secret communion is quaintly de- 
scribed by Sir Thomas Browne, the famous physician, 
who says: “I have resolved to pray more and to pray 
always, to pray in all places where quietness inviteth, 
in the house, on the highway, and on the street; and to 
know no street or passage in this city (London) that 
may not witness that I have not forgotten God.” Many 


210 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


a disciple can testify to a similar experience in finding 
all places and times made bright by the presence of the 
Divine Friend who has taught the secret of prayer and 
its uplifting power. 

Let the closing teaching of Jesus concerning prayer 
come from His own prayer, when for the last time He 
was committing the Twelve and all His and their inter- 
ests, in which were enwrapped the interests of the 
whole world-to-be, to the Father who had so loved the 
world as to bring His-only Son to that hour and place 
of supreme trial. In this prayer Jesus says: 

“T have glorified thee on earth by accomplishing the 
work thou gavest me to do; now, Father, glorify me 
in thy presence with the glory which I enjoyed in thy 
presence before the world began. I have made thy 
Name known to the men whom thou hast given to me 
from the world (thine they were, and thou gavest them 
to me), and they have held to thy word. . . . Holy 
Father, keep by the power of thy Name them which 
thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are 
one. . . . I have given them thy word, and the world 
has hated them because they do not belong to the world 
any more than I belong to the world. I pray not that 
thou wilt take them out of the world, but that thou 
wilt keep them from the evil one. Consecrate them 
by thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me 
into the world, so have I sent them into the world, 
and for their sake I consecrate myself that they may 
be consecrated by the truth. Nor do I pray for them 
alone, but for all who shall believe in me through their 
word; that they may all be one; as thou, Father, art 
in me, and IJ in thee, that they may also be in us—that 
the world may believe thou hast sent me . . . and hast 
loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, it is my 


CONCERNING PRAYER 211 


will that these, thy gift to me, may be beside me where 
I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me, 
because thou lovedst me before the foundation of the 
world. O righteous Father, though the world has not 
known thee, I have known thee, and they have known 
that thou hast sent me; so have I declared, so will I 
declare, thy Name to them, that the love with which 
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” 


(John 18). 


My soul leans toward Him; stretches out its arms, 
And waits expectant. Speak to me, my God; 
And let me know the living Father cares 

For me, even me; for this one of His children. 
Hast Thou no word for me? I am Thy thought. 
Gop, let Thy mighty heart beat into mine, 

And let mine answer as a pulse of Thine. 


Lord of Thyself and me, through the sore grief 
Which Thou didst bear to bring us back to God, 
Or, rather, bear in being unto us 

Thy own pure shining self of love and truth! 
When I have learnt to think Thy radiant thoughts, 
To live the truth beyond the power to know it, 
To bear my light as Thou Thy heavy cross, 
Nor ever feel a martyr for Thy sake, 

But an unprofitable servant still— 

My highest sacrifice my simplest duty, 

Less than which all were nothingness and waste; 
When I have lost myself in other men, 

And found myself in Thee—the Father then 
Will come with Thee, and will abide with me. 


—George Macdonald. 








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CHAPTER EIGHT 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING LIFE HERE 


O Lord and Master of us all, 
Whate’er our name or sign, 
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call, 
We test our lives by Thine. 
—J. G. Whittier. 


See Jesus’ attitude to life. The word “life’ was often 
on His lips. He loved the thing and therefore loved the 
word. He wanted men to live. The tragedy of the world 
to Him was that human life was everywhere so thin and 
meager. “I came that they might have life, and in abun- 
dance.” It is His aim*to break the fetters and let life out 
to its completion. Jesus was always arguing with men 
about the right way of living. Life was to Him ever a treas- 
ure of transcendent importance, and His question, “What 
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
lose his own life?” is one of those sentences which having 
once dropped into the world’s mind, is sure to stay forever. 
—Charles E. Jefferson. 


Jesus concerned Himself with the underlying, permanent 
needs of human life. The things that occupied Him were 
those that touch our humanity in its very substance and in 
its great abiding relations. . . . The principles which He laid 
down have proved themselves, during the two thousand 
years which have since elapsed, to be capable of ever new 
application. The social order has been transformed many 
times over, but in each succeeding age men have gone back 
to those sayings of Jesus, and have found them charged 
with a living significance. . . . We can see now, as we look 
back over the centuries, that the endeavor to think out His 
principles, in their bearing on ever changing conditions, has 
been the chief factor in Christian progress. ... All new 
discovery has only served to vindicate the wisdom of His 
rule of life... . It is concerned throughout with the inner 
principles of human action, which do not change—E. F. 
Scott. 


an J ie 


CuarptTer Eicutr 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
LIFE HERE 


“IT CAME that they may have life and have it abund- 
antly,’ says Jesus, in His parable of the Good Shep- 
herd. What has He to teach us concerning this 
“abundant life’? What are its ideals, its principles, 
its aims, its rules, its modes, its forms of activity, its 
goals? What is it worth in the sight of God? What 
is its meaning and value to him who lives it, and what 
to his fellows and the world at large? What are the 
forces hostile to it and what the forces friendly? And 
how can the fullness of the life of which Jesus speaks 
be obtained? All these are natural questions, of the 
most profound interest to mankind. What light will 
the teaching of Jesus throw upon them? John in the 
prologue of his Gospel says of Jesus, “In him was 
life; and the life was the light of men” (1:4). Jesus 
says of Himself, “I am the life’ (John 14:6). We 
may confidently look to Him therefore for the illumina- 
tion of the true life. Once again we shall find the ex- 
ample often speaking more loudly than the words. We 
can say, with Caroline Hazard: 


“THlume my mind, Thou very Light of Light! 
I cannot let Thee go until Thou bless.” 


In His presence we bow before Him as Teacher not 
merely because of the fact that “never man so spake,” 


but that never man was what He was and is. 
215 


216 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Following our method of appealing directly to the 
Gospel records, we find that the first lesson is obedience, 
taught by the life of the “silent years” in Nazareth 
when Jesus was reverently subject to his parents (Luke 
2:51); taught also in words at His baptism, at the 
entrance upon His public career: “Thus it becomes 
us to fulfil all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15), or “all 
our duty to God,” in Moffatt’s paraphrase. The next, 
in the answer to the Tempter, “Thou shalt worship 
the Lord thy God,*and him only shalt thou serve” 
(Luke 4:8), puts God at the center of worship and 
service—two of the most important factors in the right 
building of a life. Then Jesus begins His public teach- 
ing with the declaration that a spiritual birth is a pre- 
requisite to entrance into the new life which He came 
to make possible for men (John 2:3). He teaches, 
further, that to make this life possible God gave His 
only Son, revealing the measureless depth of His love 
for His children and making love the greatest molding 
power in the life (John 3:16). Then we see Him in 
a whirl of human helpfulness, healing and restoring, 
and have an ideal life of unselfish service set forth 
in panoramic pictures scattered through the Gospels. In 
the midst of the pressing activities another picture ap- 
pears: “In the morning, a great while before day, he 
rose up and went out into a desert place, and there 
prayed” (Mark 1:35). 

Leaving for later consideration the eating and asso- 
ciating with people impossible in the Pharisaic circles 
of society, we come next to the delicate point of proper 
religious observances. The Sabbath regulations were 
exceedingly strict with the Jews, and their traditions 
had made the day one of many difficulties and absurdi- 
ties. When they counted it lawful to pull a sheep out 


- ) a ~~ 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 217 


of a pit but not to cure a leper or heal a cripple, Jesus 
drew the line of common sense and said the Sabbath 
was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 
2:27). The true life will be governed by the laws 
which God has established, among which is the day 
for rest and worship; but it will apply common sense 
to all human additions and interpretations. 

The Sermon on the Mount is an exhaustless source 
of religious education. We have seen how it furnishes 
the traits that compiete the Christian character, as well 
as the highest form of ethics the world has ever known. 
{t contains therefore the principles that are to control 
in the abundant life, and some general guide-marks. 
Its teachings differ widely from the system of minute 
rules and regulations under which Jesus was brought 
up. Jesus here teaches that the life which is marked 
by true humility of spirit; by the meekness which means 
“willingness to yield in small matters in order to win 
great ends’; by sympathy, brotherliness, purity, peace- 
ableness, and a hunger for the right, is a blessed life. 
The new life requires the careful keeping of the real 
commandments of God and a genuine righteousness 
instead of a sham and pretense (Matt. 5: 3-11, 17-20). 

Thus Jesus goes to the roots of life. The motive, 
not the act, is His norm of judgment. See how He 
strips off the wrappings and gets to the heart springs, 
the sources of life, good and evil. Anger, lust, oaths, 
vengeance—these are destructive forces, which can 
only be overcome by the divine force of love; love ex- 
tending, in this unexampled teaching, even to enemies, 
—this being too commonly regarded as a “counsel of 
perfection” (Matt. 5: 22-48). 

The true life, according to this teaching, will be 
careful not to parade righteousness but to practise it; 


218 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


will keep its charities to itself; will pray privately, 
simply and sincerely; will not forget to forgive as it 
prays to be forgiven. It is a life with a generous Eye 
(6:22) which illumines everything. Knowing that 
no one can serve both God and Mammon, it secures 
its heart safety by choosing to lay up the heavenly 
treasures, and keeps greed and covetousness under close 
guard, while not disregarding the duties of stewardship. 
One of the most beautiful and satisfying things about 
this life is that it is freed from anxiety and worry by 
the sense of an all-embracing Providence. What depth 
of teaching: “Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious 
for your life, what ye shall eat; or what ye shall drink; 
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not 
the life more than the food, and the body than the 
raiment?” It was to Him and He never suffered; 
why not for everybody? Then He gives that wonderful 
nature lesson, with its promise that the life that is de- 
voted to the righteous interests of the Kingdom will 
be thoroughly provided for by the heavenly Father, 
who knows His children’s needs, and will surely not 
give them less care than He bestows on the birds and 
flowers (Matt. 6: 24-34). 

The teaching enjoins withholding judgment, for one 
reason to escape the hypocrisy of seeing motes through 
beams; recommends keeping some sacred preserves and 
holy reticences; and declares that the Heavenly Father 
loves to be asked and to give good gifts to His chil- 
dren. Then it proclaims the one specific rule—the 
Golden Rule, as the world has named it (Matt. 7: 12), 
whose universal following would mean all men’s good, 
the remaking of the conditions of living, the estab- 
lishment of righteousness and peace, and the answer 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 219 


of the first petition of that prayer which Jesus gave 
when His disciples said, “Lord, teach us how to pray” : 
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it 
is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-13). This precept shuts 
selfishness out of the new life and makes it one of 
mutual and interlocking interests and sympathies. We 
would have others like and trust us; we must like and 
trust them, and so through the whole round of social 
relationships and services which bind us together in 
the great bundle of life. Marvelous the results of this 
rule wherever men have tried it, since the day when 
Jesus announced it and thereafter illustrated it in His 
own life. 

Jesus laid down only this one rule of conduct, and 
He gave but one commandment, adding this to the ten, 
which He restated positively in two, Love to God and 
neighbor. Love to one another was the new controlling 
principle that should bind His Brotherhood and build 
firm His kingdom among men: “A new commandment 
I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have 
loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall 
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love 
one to another” (John 13: 34, 35). The Golden Rule 
is founded upon the same principle of Love, which runs 
all through the works and teaching of Jesus, and is to 
be the dominant spirit in the new life. Something of 
what this signifies is expressed by Whittier in “The 
Over-Heart”’: 


“In Him of whom the Sybil told, 
For whom the prophet’s heart was toned, 
Whose need the sage and magian owned, 
The loving heart of God behold, 
The hope for which the ages groaned! 


220 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


“Fade, pomp of dreadful imagery 
Wherewith mankind have deified 
Their hate, and selfishness, and pride! 
Let the scared dreamer wake to see 
The Christ of Nazareth at his side! 


“What doth that holy Guide require >— 
No rite of pain, nor gift of blood, 
But man a kindly brotherhood, 
Looking, where duty is desire, 
To Him, the beautiful and good. 


“Gone be the faithlessness of fear, 
And let the pitying heaven’s sweet rain 
Wash out the altar’s bloody stain; 
The law of Hatred disappear, 
The law of Love alone remain. 


“The world sits at the feet of Christ, 
Unknowing, blind and unconsoled; 
It yet shall touch His garment’s fold, 
And feel the heavenly Alchemist 
Transform its very dust to gold.” 


Such change and blessed transformation were in- 
volved in His mission when Jesus came that men might 
have life and in abundance. 

Warning is given that the entrance gate is narrow 
and the way straitened or close that leads to the new 
life, but this does not mean that the life itself is narrow 
or close. It is as broad as honour, virtue, truth, right, 
goodness, whatsoever is lovely and of good report. 
Anything broader will be found in the wide way that 
leadeth to destruction (Matt. 7: 13, 14). 

The decisive test of the new life is doing the will 
of the Father. This is taught dramatically and emphat- 
ically in one of those unmatchable illustrations of the 
Teacher. He has just been bidding His disciples be- 
ware of false prophets, who shall be detected by their 
fruits, and then He says: “It is not every one who 





CONCERNING LIFE HERE 221 


says to me ‘Lord, Lord!’ who will get into the Realm 
of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in 
heaven. Many will say to me at that Day, ‘Lord, Lord, 
did we not prophesy in your name? did we not cast 
out demons in your name? did we not perform many 
miracles in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, 
‘I never knew you: depart from my presence, you 
workers of mgquity ” (Matt. 7: 21-23; M.). Claims 
and protestations therefore will not be counted for 
righteousness in the kingdom life. But Jesus goes on 
to promise that the life which is built on the sound 
plan of hearing and doing His words shall discover 
rock foundation and stand firm and unmoved through 
the storms that overthrow the sand-foundation struc- 
tures of the foolish. 

The teaching makes clear the important part which 
words play in the life. Jesus is speaking about the sin 
of blasphemy, after the Pharisees stupidly charge Him 
with being in league with Beelzebub, the prince of 
devils. He utters strong language. He says all blas- 
phemies shall be forgiven except that against the Holy 
Spirit, which shall never be forgiven; and then looking 
in indignation upon those who have turned His miracle 
of mercy to such base interpretation He adds, “Ye off- 
spring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good 
things? for out of the abundance of the heart the 
mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good treas- 
ure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out 
of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. And I 
say unto you, that every idle word men shall speak, 
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12: 31, 33-37). 
Volubility will not be mistaken in the new life for re- 


222 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


liability ; nor does the teaching leave any doubt of the 
fact that words can never take the place of acts; like 
faith and works they go together in the filling out of 
life. Perhaps James, our Lord’s brother, got his hom- 
ily on the tongue from such incidents as this. 

Jesus teaches that in the new life it is the soul, the 
spiritual element, not the body, that is of first 1m- 
portance (Matt. 10:28). The life moreover will be 
marked by a supreme allegiance to Jesus; by public 
confession of Him} and by the self-sacrificing spirit 
that finds the life in losing it (Matt. 10: 32, 37, 39). 
It will not fail to show righteous anger at all forms 
of oppression, cruelty and injustice (Matt. 23; Luke 
6:10). It will regard keeping the commandments as 
more important than ceremonial observances; a pure 
heart more essential than clean hands; for, as Jesus 
says, “Out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, mur- 
ders” and other defiling things: “but to eat with un- 
washen hands defileth not the man” (Matt. 15:1, 19, 
20). Suffering will be expected, for the Master suf- 
fered and the servant is not above his Master; nor is 
the discipleship which secures this life possible without 
its cross (Matt. 16:21, 28). Among other of the life 
features disclosed in the teaching are childlike humility, 
the child spirit with the man’s will and strength for 
service constituting the true greatness (Matt. 18: 1-4) ; 
forgiveness, even to the limit (Matt. 18: 21, 22) ; and 
faithful stewardship as illustrated by the ten- and five- 
talent servants in the parable (Luke 19: 16-18). Be- 
yond this, there is a spirit free from over-ambition or 
aggression or self-seeking, serving in preference to be- 
ing served, as Jesus said of Himself, ‘““The Son of man 
came not to be ministered unto but to minister’ (Matt. 
20: 26-28). We find the secret of a happy life in the 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 22 


G9 


words of Jesus: “He that sent me is with me; he hath 
not left me alone; for I do always those things that are 
pleasing to him” (John 8:29). And the place of truth 
in the new life is shown in the promise: “If ye abide in 
my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall 
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” 
(John 8:31, 32). In that freedom of the truth the 
new life is lived in the promised joy and peace and 
cheer. For Jesus says the Father and Himself will 
give their presence and the benediction of their love, 
and joy shall be full; and His closing salutation is the 
inspiring slogan of this new life which He surrendered 
heaven to bring to earth, “Be of good cheer; I have 
overcome the world” (John 14:23; 15:11; 16:33). 

Thus we have gone through the Gospel records to 
glean the teaching of Jesus concerning the new life, 
which He often speaks of also as eternal life. What 
definite results have we obtained? Granted that such a 
life is ideal, is it desirable and is it practically livable? 
As to this, Professor Findlay says: “The ideal de- 
scribed by Jesus is not so much a ‘counsel of perfec- 
tion’ as the only really wholesome and natural way of 
life possible for men with natures like ours in a world 
like ours.” Another says, “Once entered upon, the 
school of Christ’s obedience is a sanctified progress 
and an increasing joy. It is a vocation of life not ac- 
cording to an external rule of conduct, but in the power 
of an endless life.” And Dr. Jefferson wisely sug- 
gests that the only way to understand the life which 
Jesus teaches as the true one, and to find out whether 
it is practicable, is to work at it. If one desires to 
know the truth, one must live it; this is common sense. 
Let us in this spirit look further into its character, re- 
quirements and principles. 


22% “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Reviewing the life of Jesus as a whole, one of the 
deepest impressions made by the Gospel story is His 
attitude of absolute trust in God His Father. That 
never varies nor wavers. That is His continuous teach- 
ing: “Have faith in God.” “Why are ye fearful, have 
ye not yet faith?’ “My Father is greater than all.” 
“He has given me all power.” It is in such conscious- 
ness of the Father’s presence with Him that He walks 
before us, and we feel the glow of that communion 
between Father and Son. The new life, as Jesus pre- 
sents it, is to be lived in this same attitude of abso- 
lute trust and confidence. Edward Everett Hale used 
to give as his first principle of right living, “Accept the 
universe.” Jesus did that, and saw His Father in it 
all, also His own mission as its Life and Light, the 
Life-giver. If it is possible to have such a life, filled 
with trust, freed from anxiety and fear, blessed with the 
“awareness” of God, is it not to be desired and sought 
with all our strength? If the teaching of Jesus 1s true, 
it 1s possible. When He says that He will give eternal 
life to those who believe in Him (John 10: 28), do we 
doubt His word? Let us say with Principal Shairp: 


“T have a life in Christ to live, 
I have a death in Christ to die; 
And must I wait till Science give 
All doubts a full reply? 
Nay, rather, while the sea of doubt 
Is raging wildly round about, 
Questioning of life, and death, and sin, 
Let me but creep within 
Thy fold, O Christ, and at Thy feet 
Take but the lowest seat, 
And hear Thine awful voice repeat, 
In gentlest accents, heavenly sweet, 
‘Come unto Me and rest; 
Believe Me and be blest!’” 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 225 


Another profound impression, closely allied, is made 
upon us by the prayer-life of Jesus. How marked a 
feature this was is shown in the preceding chapter 
which treats of this subject. That prayer must have a 
large place in a life founded on the example and teach- 
ing of Jesus admits of no question. It has indeed held 
an inestimably influential place in all life, as we have 
seen, and its power has everywhere been recognized, no 
matter how crude or superstitious the forms under 
which it has been practised. Certainly it is a truth of 
widest experience that 


“Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath— 
The Christian’s native air.” 


If Jesus needed the strength and comfort and joy that 
come from communion with the Father, surely His 
disciples do. If He teaches men to pray, and prays 
Himself, prayer cannot be left out of the life without 
irreparable loss and atrophy of the soul. Only small 
men, pitiable in their blindness, ever sneer at prayer. 

Then we come to a feature that has perplexed many 
besides the Pharisees of His own day. Probably noth- 
ing in the life of Jesus created so much consternation 
as His social relations and opinions. They drew upon 
Him the harshest and most bitter comment, including 
the calumny that He “was a gluttonous man, and a 
winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners,” as He 
ironically describes their self-refuting charge (Luke 
7:34). On this point Dr. Jefferson has an eloquent 
passage which is too good to cut. “The social sympa- 
thies of Jesus,” he says, “were to his countrymen a 
surprise and scandal. He felt with everybody. He 
seemed ignorant of the proprieties and the etiquette of 


1 Charles E. Jefferson, “The Character of Jesus.” 


226 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


well-bred people. His heart went out to all sorts and 
conditions of men in a way which was reckless and 
shocking. There were men in Palestine who were under 
the ban of public opinion, despised, treated like the 
dogs in the street. They had feelings but nobody felt 
with them. Every door of society was slammed in 
their face. Publicans. Jesus’ heart went out to them. 
He talked with them, ate with them; took one of them 
into the inner circle of His intimate friends and al- 
lowed him to go out and teach in His name. In Jericho, 
home of the priests, narrowest of all Judean cities, the 
big-hearted prophet took dinner with one of the most 
notorious of all the Publicans, to the consternation of 
the best people. Then painted a picture which hangs 
in the art gallery of the world. Its colors will never 
fade and no thief can ever destroy it—‘The Pharisee 
and the Publican.’ The lesson is that God’s heart is 
more responsive to a penitent Publican than to a vain- 
glorious Pharisee. There was only one set lower— 
the Samaritans. Every man’s hand was against them. 
Jesus befriended them. Gave religious instruction even 
to a Samaritan woman, healed a Samaritan leper, and 
painted a picture men will look at as long as they have 
eyes to see and hearts to feel—’The Good Samaritan.’ 
What havoc He made with the traditions and customs 
of His countrymen! The land was crossed in all direc- 
tions by dividing walls and estranging barriers, con- 
structed by narrow-hearted teachers, and after Jesus 
had walked through the land, lo, the barriers and walls 
were a mass of ruins. His great, loving heart burst 
asunder all the regulations and restrictions. There was 
room in His soul for everybody. It is in the width of 
His love that men have found most to wonder at. His 
love was unbounded, an ocean without a shore. Peter 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 227 


asked Him how many times. Set no limits. Mathe- 
matics is foreign to affection. Love your enemies. 
Jesus taught forgiveness because He knew the blessed- 
ness of a forgiving heart. He was forgiving always. 
He had no grudges, retaliations, revenges. Forgive, 
forgive—even on the cross.’ 

This is the spirit of the social life exemplified by 
Jesus, the spirit that will animate the new life He 
would have men live. It breaks through no convention 
that ought to obtain in a life of true culture; only oblit- 
erates the false distinctions and discriminations born 
of an unworthy pride and arrogance. Jesus is not 
afraid to put His character in refutation of the charges 
of His enemies, and boldly challenges them: “Who 
of you convicteth me of sin?” (John 8:46). Nor is 
He to be deterred from following the course He has 
marked out for Himself as the Teacher of love and 
righteousness in all human relations. His teaching 
proves that He is the friend of all, not the enemy of 
any. He sees the sins of the poor as well as the sins 
of the rich, and also the virtues in each. He is rating 
all by the worth of the soul, not by the accident or 
amount of possessions. He chooses for His “inner 
circle” ordinary men, through whom He can show what 
transformation can be wrought in the life when the 
divine power comes into it. They will not be ordinary 
men when He has completed their education and im- 
parted to them His own culture and spirit. Thus He 
becomes the creator of a new spiritual order of society ; 
a brotherhood based on His teaching of mutual love, 
good-will, goodness, generosity, sincerity and loyalty ; 
and those who receive His gift of this new life will 
belong to the Brotherhood of the Kingdom. If true 
to Jesus’ teaching and example, then, the abundant life 


228 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


will be genuinely democratic and fraternal; free from 
arrogant assumptions of rank and pretensions to superi- 
ority either social or religious; frank and open to all; 
full of sympathy, with hand outstretched to help in all 
ways of service; nobly indignant at hypocrisy, oppres- 
sion and injustice; glowing with the warmth of kindly 
human interest and neighborly concern for the welfare 
of all. Is this an ideal impossible of realization? The 
history of the Christian centuries furnishes the suffi- 
cient answer. 

The teaching of Jesus presents a life that is full of 
action. It is abounding in vigor and virility. No mis- 
ake could be greater than to suppose that He would 
rave men live a weak or supine life, lacking in those 
qualities of manliness which attract and inspire all real 
men. Study again His own life and that of the 
apostles. Strength of will and purpose, the daring to 
do all that a true man may do, the suiting of action to 
the word, the calm doing of duty in the face of danger 
and death—this is all a part of the day’s demand in 
the new life. The instructions to the Twelve show it 
(Matt. 10). This life will prove its affirmations by its 
acts. Thus, as Principal L. P. Jacks says in “A Liv- 
ing Universe”: “No man can fully say what he means 
by God. But every man can act what he means. God, 
you say, is Love. Yes; but nobody will know what 
you mean by saying God is Love unless you act it as 
well. Neither will you know yourself.” The new life 
will have the reality of religion that comes through 
putting belief into action, actualizing goodness and 
brotherliness and all the noble virtues that enrich and 
beautify life and make it Christlike. It is a new life 
here and now, with its immediate calls and responsi- 
bilities, its insistence on a present performance and 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 229 


not merely a prospective promise. It is a life in which 
the spiritual values will be rightly reckoned. “Is not 
the life more than food or raiment?” asks Jesus (Luke 
12:23). But how commonly is that forgotten in the 
ordinary round of eating and dressing, which consume 
a wholly disproportionate amount of thought and time. 
The new life will not give the important place to trifles. 
It will not tithe mint, anise and cummin and omit the 
weightier matters—justice, mercy and faithfulness ; nor 
filter away the gnat and swallow the camel, another of 
the immortal pictures which Jesus sketches in a sentence 
and hangs in the world’s gallery (Matt. 23:23, 24). 
It will be too intense a life to throw itself away. “I 
must work the works of Him that sent me while it is 
day,’ says Jesus (John 9:4) ; and He sets the working 
pace for the new life when He declares, “He that be- 
lieveth on me, the works that I do shall he do also” 
(John 14:12). It will therefore not only be an active 
life, but one filled with service to meet the demands 
of its time and place; service that will benefit and bless 
wherever it touches, and whose outreach human eye 
may not see. 

It will be a life on a high plane but not so high as 
to be unearthly and unreachable. It will give proof of 
the fact that those who have companied with Jesus most 
closely and adopted His principles most fully have done 
most for the welfare of their fellow men. No real 
human interest will be foreign to it. It will not be 
cold and forbidding but attractive by its enthusiasm 
and happiness. Read the first chapter of Mark, that 
Gospel of “doing things,’ and note with what ardor 
and zeal Jesus sets out on His great work. Full of en- 
thusiasm Himself, He naturally selects men to “‘be 
with Him” who are capable of responding to His mood 


230 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


and call; not men limp and pallid, in long robes, as we 
see them pictured in galleries and sculptured in ca- 
thedrals, but full-blooded men, drawn to Jesus as a 
leader great enough to inspire and hold them. One 
of the Twelve, as his name points out, was a Zealot, 
a member of the most radical party in Palestine. Peter 
had many bitter experiences before his temper was toned 
into control. James and John, “sons of thunder,” 
when a Samaritan village refused to receive Jesus, said, 
“Lord, will you have us bid fire come down from 
heaven and consume them?” and He had to check them 
(Luke 9:53, 54). Impetuous men, quick to resent an 
insult to the Master they loved; in a life of training, 
with a Master of perfect poise, but not a mild and in- 
sipid life. Surely not morose or melancholy, for Jesus 
pictured Himself as a bridegroom, living with His 
groomsmen in an atmosphere of wedding joy, when 
John’s disciples in critical spirit came asking why His 
disciples did not spend their time fasting as they and 
the Pharisees did (Matt. 9:14, 15). He also indicated 
in parable that their type of piety did not agree with 
His (9:16, 17). We believe with Professor Peabody 
that “Jesus is neither a medieval saint nor a Galilean 
dreamer, but a Teacher whose pains and pleasures are 
but the scenery and environment of the soul. Behind 
all suffering and joy there is a quality of spiritual life 
making these experiences subordinate. An underlying 
note of tranquil joy is heard throughout His ministry.” 
Ardour, enthusiasm, suffering, tranquillity—these are 
not strange combinations in such a life. We like best 
to think of Him, “with face uplift and radiant, the 
Christ that Raphael drew.” 

In the light of the life and teaching of Jesus, we 
cannot picture the abundant life as other than health- 


“San. ee ee 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 231 


ful and wholesome, with moderate wants, and appetites 
under self-control; with the realization always that 
what happens to the body is of inestimably less mo- 
ment than what happens to the soul, which is the higher 
and enduring part of us (Luke 12:4,5). Jesus made 
bodies whole and cured the sick. “God meant men to 
be healthy,” says a recent writer.” ‘Certainly Jesus 
Himself was healthy. Merely from a physical stand- 
point, He must have been a man to admire; no one 
could have lived the strenuous life He did, healing, 
teaching, speaking sometimes to as many as five thou- 
sand in the open air, tramping from place to place, 
living in tremendous publicity, enduring the stress of 
opposition, unless He had a strong and serviceable 
body.” It is highly improbable that He would have 
called any but physically strong men to undertake with 
Him the task which He saw before Him. And it is 
certain that the ideal of the abundant life must be “a 
sound mind in a sound body,” while no one will be shut 
out from it by reason of physical defects. Everything 
in the aim and spirit and environment of the new life 
will make for health, both physical and spiritual. The 
inner working of an ever-present trust in God and His 
personal care, with the corresponding absence of worry 
and fear, is in itself worth more for health than a 
whole materia medica. To have the companionship of 
the Great Physician will work miracles, and will in 
itself be the supreme source of health as of joy and 
delight in the new life. And it will be a joyous life 
in the truest sense. To think anything else would be 
to misconceive the ideals of life which Jesus teaches 
and the main tenor of the life He lived. A note of 
joy and triumph sounds through all His story. His 


2H, A. Mess, “Studies in the Christian Gospel for Society.” 


232 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


deepest sorrows could not efface joy from His heart 
nor banish gladness from His face. It is with death 
but a few hours away that He tells the now sorrowful 
disciples of the joy in His own heart and declares that 
the parting message of love and comfort which He 
has just given them has been given in order that His 
joy might remain in them and their joy be filled full 
(John 15:11). True to His teaching and wish, the 
new life will be not doleful but enjoyable, not gloomy 
but bright with hope, not pessimistic but overfowing 
with cheer, not lived in the shadow but out in God’s 
great open, with His radiance of love overarching all. 

It will be of interest to note here that, taken in their 
order as we meet them in our survey of the Gospels, 
the following qualities are found in the new or abun- 
dant life: Obedience, worship, helpfulness, unselfishness, 
brotherliness, humility, sympathy, mercy, purity, peace- 
ability, righteousness, love, sincerity, genuineness, un- 
ostentatiousness, forgivingness, trust, reserve, gener- 
osity, altruism, righteous anger, one-another love, reti- 
cence, loyalty, allegiance, self-sacrifice, service, en- 
durance, faithfulness, honesty, truthfulness, joyousness, 
faith, freedom, and good cheer. Cannot we conceive 
of all these belonging to a life without doing violence 
to nature or exaggerating the individual capacity for 
virtue? These are the ordinary human qualities; and 
although when put in a list they may look formidable, 
as a matter of fact they are found in goodly measure 
in lives all about us. We shall certainly not say that 
it is impossible to live a life which possesses and ex- 
hibits them. Courage is not named in the list, but the 
true courage that is born of trust in God and unflinch- 
ingly stands for the right whatever comes, is the su- 
preme quality of the whole life. It is no impracticable 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 238 


or impossible life that Jesus promises to His disciples. 
It requires neither wealth nor station but is open to all. 
It is a life rich and full, blessed in itself and a blessing 
to others. It puts the emphasis on the true values, and 
opens the way to the highest dignity and worth and 
honor possible to a mortal—the crowning gift of divine 
sonship. 


“OQ Carpenter of Nazareth, Builder of life divine, 

Who shapest man to God’s own law, Thyself the fair design, 

Build us a tower of Christlike height, that we the land may 
view, 

And see like Thee our noblest work, Our Father’s work 
to do.” 


Picture now in broad outline the life of Jesus as 
“He went about doing good’; catch something of the 
spirit He radiates, of the overflowing vitality, the radi- 
ancy of His smile, the graciousness and courteousness 
of His manner and address, the buoyancy of His step, 
the keen but kindly glance of His eye, the quick-beating 
pulse of His enthusiasm, the alert interest in all going 
on around Him, the responsiveness to the incessant calls 
for help, the cheery greeting, the glow of good-will, 
the gladness of serving instead of being served, the 
daily following of the ideal of perfection set before 
Him by His Father; then project this upon the screen 
as representing the abundant life which Jesus says He 
came that men might have and which He has been em- 
powered to give them. Is there anything impossible 
in such a life? Allowing for all differences in the 
periods and conditions of life, is there any principle 
operative in that Supreme Life that may not be oper- 
ative in any human life? Is there any motive, any 
personal virtue, any mode of manifestation, that is 


234 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


beyond the reach of any one who has been with Jesus 
and learned of Him how to live and whence to draw 
the needed strength? It was not a life apart as we 
see it in Jesus. He lived in contact with common 
affairs and common people, and loved to mingle with 
them. He would not promise the gift of life only to 
offer a program of life that could not be carried out, 
a moral and spiritual requirement that could not be 
met. Christian history demonstrates that His teach- 
ings have been lived and lived victoriously. They can 
be lived to-day, and will never be outgrown or out- 
dated. 


“Christ is walking life’s shores again! 
Christ is choosing His fishermen, 
With nets far spread for their hauling! 
Christ looks in at the office door! 
Christ is searching mill and store— 
It’s you! It’s you He’s calling!” 


Thus the teaching of Jesus presents the world with a 
new type of life, widely different from that of any 
other Teacher. It is original in its character, piety, and 
ideals. Its purpose is not “to enforce a rule, but to 
impart a spirit.” Jesus came not to give a formula 
but a life. He shows us the virtues which adorn this 
life and make it rich and blessed. He warns of the 
vices that will mar and spoil it. He sets forth plainly 
the principles that must govern it if it is to be a life 
of righteousness. These principles are unchanging and 
therefore will be permanent forces in life, so long as 
human nature lasts. It is the same with qualities: love 
will be love, goodness will be goodness, and so on 
through the list, till time shall end. Jesus does not 
expect that in this new type of life men will all be run 


CONCERNING LIFE HERE 235 


in the same mold after a uniform pattern. He “never 
failed to recognize,’ says Professor Scott, ‘that men 
are all made differently. In parables like the Sower 
and the Talents He is at pains to show that those who 
respond to the message will do so according to their 
several dispositions. . . . His whole gospel, for that 
part, rests on the belief that men have value in the sight 
of God as individuals.”’ Underneath the variety of char- 
acter, however, there will always be found the same 
motives and aims, a unity of purpose and spirit. The 
goal of this new type of life is perfection: “Be ye also 
perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.’ But 
Jesus knows the imperfections of human nature and the 
weakness of man’s will. He does not expect perfection 
in a day, yet sets it as the goal toward which His dis- 
ciples will ever aspire. He does more. He says to those 
who feel that the new life is impossible for them, too 
ideal, too high in its requirements, that He will be pres- 
ent to give them help, counsel, cheer and strength. It 
is the pledged presence of the Living Christ that makes 
the abundant life not only possible but actually realiz- 
able, as a life of faith and joy and all noble accomplish- 
ment. It is this gift of power, with the gift of life, 
that makes Christianity the dynamic religious force in 
the world. 

Of this new type of life Jesus Himself is the perfect 
example. We join with Dr. Jefferson in his glowing 
tribute: 

“Jesus’ greatness is full-orbed. He was complete. 
He was full of grace and truth. He had a charm about 
Him that wooed and fascinated. He had the heart 
of a child, the tenderness of a woman, the strength of 
aman. The three dimensions of His life were complete. 
His virtues are all full-statured. He had a purpose 


236 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


which included all lands and ages, His kingdom is to 
be universal, and it shall have no end. You can no 
more add anything to Him than you can add something 
to the sky. . . . His hope had no shadow in it, His 
love was infinite. It is impossible to go beyond Him. 
We can never outgrow Him. He will always be ahead 
of us. We shall always hear Him saying, ‘Follow Me!’ 
Fe is the ideal of the heart. He is the goal of character. 
It is this completeness of His character that accounts 
not only for His beauty but for His perennial and in- 
creasing power. He is the image of God.” 

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” 


CHAPTER NINE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 


IMMORTALITY 


Oh! Listen, man! 

A voice within us speaks that word, startling; 
“Man, thou shalt never die!’ Celestial voices 
Hymn it unto our souls; according harps, 

By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars 

Of morning sang together, still sound forth 

The song of our great immortality. 

Thick clustering orbs, and this our fair domain, 
The tall, dark mountains, and the deep-toned seas 
Join in this solemn, universal song. 


Oh, listen, ye, our spirits; drink it in 

From all the air. ’Tis in the gentle moonlight; 
’Tis floating mid day’s glories; night 

Wrapped in her sable robe, with silent step 
Comes to our bed and breathes it in our ears; 
Night, and the dawn, bright day, and thoughtful eve, 
All times, all bounds, the limitless expanse, 

As one vast instrument, are touched 

By an unseen living Hand, and conscious chords 
Quiver with joy in this great jubilee. 

The dying hear it; and, as sounds of earth 

Grow dull and distant, wake their pausing souls 
To mingle in this heavenly harmony. | 


—Richard Henry Dana. 


Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and 
brought life and immortality to light by the gospel—Words 
of Paul (il Tim. 1:10). 


At the root of Jesus’ teaching we find that there is an- 
other world—somewhere for the dead to go. And every- 
where in His teaching Jesus goes on to assume that humanity 
moves on into this hidden sphere at death. It was so in 
THiis own case: “I go unto the Father.” We sleep to wake. 
—A. D. Belden. 








CHaptrer NINE 


THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING 
LIFE HEREAFTER 


“T am the resurrection and the life,’ said Jesus to 
Martha, as she bewailed the death of her brother Laz- 
arus. “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had 
not died,” she said; “‘and even now I know that, what- 
soever thou shalt ask of God, He will give thee.” Jesus 
said unto her, ““Thy brother shall rise again.”’ Martha 
said, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection 
at the last day.” Then came the saying that has been 
the basis of hope and consolation to the multitudes of 
mourners who have believed in Jesus: “I am myself 
resurrection and life; he who believes in me will live, 
even if he dies, and no one who lives and believes in 
me will ever die. You believe that?’ ‘Yes, Lord,” 
she said, “TI do believe you are the Christ, the Son of 
God, who was to come into the world’”’—and with these 
words she went off to call her sister Mary, telling her 
secretly, “The Teacher is here, and he is calling for 
you” (John 11: 21-29; M.). 

This incident at the home in Bethany, which was the 
most of a home Jesus knew after He had begun His 
public life, gives the explicit teaching that as the life 
power was vested in Him by the Father, so was the 
resurrection power. It was not the first time He had 
manifested it. Twice before He had spoken the word 
that brought back the dead to life: the widow’s only 
son and Jairus’ little daughter (Luke 7:12; 8:41); 

239 


240 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


but the conspicuous example was that of Lazarus, whose 
body had lain four days in the tomb. Leaving the 
realm of miracle and taking up the broad question of 
the life hereafter, what has the teaching of Jesus to 
say in answer to the heart-cry which Job sent ringing 
down the aisles of the ages, “If a man die, shall he 
live again?” 

Coming to the Gospels once more for instruction, 
we note that the word “immortality” is not used by 
Jesus, and is used indeed only five times in the New 
Testament, each time by Paul. Instead of it, the word 
frequently on the lips of Jesus is “eternal life,” or “life 
everlasting’’—both translations of the same Greek word 
aia’v10s.) As for the life hereafter, or the life eternal, 
He does not argue about it but assumes it; and assumes 
it as naturally as He does the existence of God His 
Father. In His thought, apparently, nothing else could 
be possible. The life which He came to give to those 
who believe in Him is life without end. That death 
does not end it He proved by the resurrection power 
which He exerted in the instances already given. That 
His purpose and plans for humanity imply and involve 
it we shall see as we study the records. As for Him- 
self, He declares His independence of Death and His 
power over life: “Therefore doth the Father love me, 
because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. 
No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down 
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again. This commandment received 
I of my Father” (John 10: 17, 18). 

In the picture of the Judgment, when all the nations 
are gathered, the King welcomes those on his right 


1 The word “eternal” only will be used, to avoid confusion. Both 
mean the life hereafter, or life after death, although Jesus teaches 
that eternal life begins here. 


- 
SS a 


es 


ey ae se y 
eee a ee ee ee ee 


CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 241 


hand to the inheritance prepared for them from the 
foundation of the world, and after the judgment of 
those on the left hand we read: “And these shall go 
away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into 
eternal life’ (Matt. 25:46). The young ruler asks, 
“Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have 
eternal life?’ Jesus tells him; and in the teaching 
which follows concerning riches promises His disciples 
great things “in the regeneration when the Son of man 
shall sit on the throne of his glory’; adding that every 
one who has left houses, or family, or lands for His 
sake shall “inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19: 16, 28, 29). 

Three times Jesus speaks of eternal life in the third 
chapter of John. He says the Son of Man must be 
lifted up, that “every one who believes in him may 
have eternal life’ (ver. 15); that “God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believes in him should not perish but have eternal 
life (ver. 16) ; and that “he that believes in the Son has 
eternal life, but he who disobeys the Son shall not see 
life” (ver. 36). Jesus tells the woman of Samaria that 
“the water I shall give him will turn into a spring of 
water welling up to eternal life’ (John 4:14). He 
tells His disciples, speaking of the fields white to har- 
vest, that “the reaper is already getting wages and 
harvesting for eternal life’ (John 4: 36). 

Then we come to the core of the teaching. It was 
after the healing of the invalid at the bath on the Sab- 
bath. The Jews persecuted Jesus because He did things 
like this on the Sabbath, and even sought to slay Him. 
His reply only infuriated them the more, because He 
not merely broke the Sabbath but made Himself equal 
with God. As He goes on with His answer, He 
makes these startling statements: “As the Father 


242 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


raises the dead and makes them live, so the Son makes 
any one live whom He chooses. The Father has com- 
mitted the judgment which determines life or death 
entirely to the Son. He who listens to my word and 
believes him who sent me has eternal life; he will incur 
no sentence of judgment, he has already passed from 
death across to life. Truly, truly I tell you, the time 
is coming, it has come already, when the dead will 
listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who 
listen will live; for as the Father has life in himself, 
so too he has granted the Son to have life in him- 
self, and also granted him authority to act as judge, 
since he is the Son of man. Do not wonder at this; for 
there is a time coming when all who are in the tombs 
will listen to his voice and come out, they that have 
done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that 
have done ill unto the resurrection of judgment” (John 
5:16-29; M.). This teaching is too clear to be mis- 
taken. 

Jesus tells the people who seek Him because, as He 
says, they ate of the loaves and were filled: “Work 
not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat 
which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man 
shall give unto you” (John 6:26, 27). “I am the 
living bread that came down from heaven; if any one 
eats of this bread he shall live forever.” “He that 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life” 
(John 6:51, 54). “For this is the will of my Father, 


that every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth in 


Him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up 
at the last day” (John 6:40). This positive promise 
He repeats (6:47). He has the “words of eternal 
life,’ as Simon Peter said (6:68), and He has also 
the gift of it, for He says, ‘““My sheep hear my voice, 


ae Shee ene. 


CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 243; 


and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto 
them eternal life’ (John 10: 27, 28). 


“When the anxious hearts say ‘Where?’ 
He doth answer ‘In My care.’ 
‘Saviour, tell us, where are they?’ 
‘In My keeping, night and day.’ 
‘Tell us, tell us, how it stands.’ 
‘None shall pluck them from My hands.’ ” 


This, too, is Jesus’ promise: “I give them eternal 
life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any one 
pluck them out of my hand” (John 10: 27). 

Contrasting the value of the life here with the life 
hereafter, Jesus says, ‘““He who loves his life loses it, 
and he who cares not for his life in this world will 
preserve it for eternal life’ (John 12:25). Declaring 
that He has not spoken of His own accord but as He 
was ordered by His Father, He says, “I know that 
His orders mean eternal life. Therefore when I speak, 
I speak as the Father has told me” (John 12: 49, 50; 
M.). His last use of the term is in the intercessory 
prayer, and throws light upon the meaning of the words 
as He interprets them. He says: “Father, the time 
has now come; glorify thy Son that thy Son may 
glorify thee, since thou hast granted him power over 
all flesh to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given 
him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee, the 
only real God, and him whom thou hast sent, even Jesus 
Christ’? (John 17: 1-3; M.). We have italicized this 
saying, because it clothes eternal life with a new im- 
port. It takes it out of the realm of place and time, 
and posits it in the realm of knowledge and the life 
of the soul. Jesus was ever seeking to bring men to a 
knowledge of God, and this interpretation of eternal 


244 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


life makes plain His teaching that this life begins when 
the soul comes into saving and enlightening contact 
with the Father and Himself. The spiritual rebirth is 
also the birthday of eternal life. 

We have now noted Jesus’ references to eternal life, 
as recorded in the Gospels. It is of value to group them, 
as showing the normal place which the life hereafter 
held in His thought. He speaks further of the Resur- 
rection. When the Sadducees, who hold there is no 
resurrection, put a hypothetical test case before Him, 
He asserts the fact of a resurrection and a future state, 
and convicts them out of their own Scriptures. He 
says, taking Luke’s narrative: “People in this world 
marry and are married, but those who are accounted 
worthy to attain yonder world and the resurrection 
from the dead neither marry nor are married, for they 
cannot die any more; they are equal to angels and by 
sharing in the resurrection they are sons of God. 


And that the dead are raised has been indicated by — 


Moses in the passage on the Bush, when he calls the 
Lord ‘God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of 
Jacob.’ God is not a God of dead people, but of living, 
for all live unto him.” Some of the scribes declared, 
“Teacher, that was a fine answer!” They no longer 
dared to put any question to him (Luke 20: 27-40; 
M.). This is one of the rare hints at conditions in the 
spirit world beyond; but the great point lies in the fact 
that there is life only with God. Jesus speaks of “rec- 
ompense at the resurrection of the just” for good 
deeds done in this life (Luke 14:14). And the last 
time He uses the word resurrection is in the talk with 
Martha already given. 

The saying of Jesus, however, which has afforded 
inestimable consolation and comfort not only to those 


al 





CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 245 


mourning their loss of loved ones but also to those 
looking forward to the “great adventure,” is that which 
He made in the final talk with His intimates in the 
“upper room.” Their souls are sorely tried, for they 
have heard sorrowful news. Jesus, with all the pres- 
sure that is upon Him in that hour, says to them: 
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, 
believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many 
mansions (abodes): if it were not so I would have 
told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if 
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again 
and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye 
may be also” (John 14: 1-3). “Never man so spake.” 
Words of wonder, weighted with hope and promise. 
There stands the great affirmation in all its positiveness 
and strength. ’ Until it can be taken out of Jesus’ teach- 
ing, it will abide in the hearts of all who believe in 
and love Him; who look with joy and hope for His 
promised coming and the glad reception in the prepared 
place in the Father’s spacious house. What may be a 
crowning experience then is pictured by John Oxen- 
ham: 


“What shall we be like when 

We cast this earthly body and attain 

To Immortality? 

What shall we be like then? 

Ah, who shall say 

What vast expansions shall be ours that day? 
What transformations of this house of clay, 
To fit the heavenly mansions and the light of day? 
Ah, who shall say? 


No fetters then! No bonds of time or space! 
But powers as ample as the boundless grace 
That suffered man, and death, and yet, in tenderness, 


246 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


Set wide the door and passed Himself before— 
As He had promised—to prepare a place. 


We know not what we shall be—only this— 
That we shall be made like Him—as He is.” 


That is what John says in his Epistle: “Beloved, 
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall 
appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he 
as (Lonny 3s 12). 

Jesus does not enter into details as to the nature 
or occupations of the life beyond this earthly span of 
the life eternal, but He does not leave us without sug- 
gestions. He intimates that it is a glorious life, recall- 
ing the glory He enjoyed in the Father’s presence 
before He left it for His earthly task which the 
Father set for Him and which He had accomplished 
(John 17:5). He teaches the existence and recog- 
nizableness of spirit personalities in the world to come, 
and gives them location also. “This day thou shalt be 
with me in Paradise,’ He tells the thief who hangs 
beside Him (Luke 23:43), and Paradise means the 
heaven of which He so constantly speaks as the abode 
of His Father. “Where I am there shall my servant be 
also” (John 12:26); “I go to prepare a place for you 

. and will receive you” (John 14:3), the place 
being a mansion in the Father’s habitation. All this 
distinctly means the survival of personality. Then, in 
the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the rich 
man raised his eyes, being in torment, and “saw Abra- 
ham, with Lazarus in his bosom’’—this being a meta- 
phor for unalloyed bliss. 

Aside from these and many other illustrations, the 


survival of individuality is involved in the entire life, 








CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 247 


mission and teaching of Jesus. It inheres in His idea 
of God and of man. He is “the great believer in 
man,’ and He says He came to seek and save the 
“lost”? man and bring Him back to the Father, teach 
him and fit him for the eternal life of the kingdom of 
God. “A thing of price is man, because for him Christ 
died,” wrote Synesius about 410 A. D. If Jesus sees 
so much in the individual it is because He represents the 
Father’s love and interest and faith in him. Jesus 
revealed to man two things—God and himself—and 
having taught man the worth and dignity of his indi- 
viduality in God’s sight and led him into a new and 
noble way of living, worthy of a son of God, is it con- 
ceivable that physical death should be the end of all 
for hime When Jesus went to the extreme of choos- 
ing the cross, in order that He might lay bare the heart 
of God in the supreme act that made the life of the 
new kingdom of God possible to all men, would He 
make that sacrifice if after all there was no conscious 
life hereafter for the individual, no survival of per- 
sonality? If death destroys the individuality then the 
teaching of eternal life is a mockery of hope, and the 
whole structure of a new and endlessly developing life 
which Jesus has been building for the inspiration of His 
disciples falls into an unthinkable ruin. His teaching 
and example permit of no such impotent conclusion. 
His words, “I am the resurrection and the life,” give 
His unimpeachable guarantee of the future life. 

The insistent question, “Shall we know each other 
there?” finds ample reason for affirmative answer in 
the teaching of Jesus concerning the life hereafter, 
which is the continuation of the eternal life begun here ; 
death in His thought being an important incident in 
life but not its extinction—the opening of a door, not 


248 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


the sealing of atomb. The human attitude is expressed 
beautifully by an anonymous poet: 


“Like children here we lisp and grope,. 
And, till the perfect manhood, wait 
At home our time, and only dream 
Of that which lies beyond the gate: 
God’s full, free universe of life, 
No shadowy paradise of bliss, 
No realm of unsubstantial souls, 
But life, more real life than this.” 


We have not yet touched the chief fact of all—the 
resurrection of Jesus Himself and its teaching, taken 
in connection with the mystery of the cross. These 
facts, which have no parallel either in character or 
influence, were definitely and repeatedly foretold by 
Jesus to His chosen comrades, but not until the very 
last did they comprehend His words, and when they 
were forced to comprehend, still did not wish to believe 
(Matt) 162/21 0173233 ’Marls 9730-32510 eo a ae 
The Gospels give the story of the agony of Jesus in 
the Garden, the arrest, the mockery of a trial, and 
the crucifixion, with the simplicity and absence of 
display that befit the character of the Master and attest 
the truthfulness of the records. The events were too 
great in themselves to need extravagant adjectives. 
The same straightforwardness marks the account of 
the Resurrection morning, the world’s first Easter with 
its angelic message: “Fear not: for I know that ye 
seek Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here; 
for he is risen, even as he said” (Matt. 28:5, 6). 
‘That resurrection note has sounded out in the hearing 
of humanity ever since, and it can never be lost, be- 
cause it has become a possession of experience. The 


4 
4 
f 





CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 249 


resurrection power, too, has become a mighty factor 
in human life. 

The Gospels complete the record, with details that 
need not be repeated here. The predictions of Jesus 
were fulfilled. He chose the cross, gave His life a 
ransom, was raised up on the third day, and came 
again to be with His “brothers”; to inspire them with 
the resurrection joy and power, commission them for a 
world’s instruction unto salvation, and pledge His abid- 
ing presence. We are here especially interested in the 
fact that His spiritualized form was recognizable, that 
His personality was not lost, and that He gave convinc- 
ing evidence that He was really Himself, the loving 
Lord they had known, while yet not the same. For 
very joy they could not at first believe the evidence of 
their senses. By natural action He sought to over- 
come their wonder and at times terror. At last they 
knew, and were prepared to carry forward His work. 
He recalled to them His words, which now they could 
understand, predicting His suffering and resurrection 
according to the Scriptures, adding what was to be their 
essential part, that repentance and the remission of 
sins must be preached in His name to all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24: 44-47). Thus He left 
them with a world vision, a universal gospel of eternal 
life to preach; a task humanly impossible, but with the 
assurance of that presence which makes all things pos- 
sible. 


“QO Breather into man of breath! 

O Holder of the keys of death! 

O Giver of the Life within! 

Save us from death, the death of sin; 
That body, soul, and spirit be 
Forever living unto Thee! 


250 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


“God of the living, in whose eyes 
Unveiled Thy whole creation lies! 
All souls are Thine; we must not say 
That those are dead who pass away; 
From this our world of flesh set free, 
We know them living unto Thee.” ? 


We have now considered what Jesus has to say in 
the Gospels concerning a subject which is of paramount 
importance to every living soul. We have seen how He 
bore the ultimate witness to the truth of His teaching 
by His own death and resurrection. Widely divergent 
views have been held regarding the Gospel records of 
this event, but those who question the narratives have 
never been able to explain the remarkable results that 
followed, or to eliminate them from history. It is 
easy enough to cavil over details, but the central fact 
stands unchallengeable. “Take away the resurrection, 
however it happened, whatever it was,” says Professor 
Glover, ‘“‘and the history of the Church is unintelligi- 
ble. Great results have great causes. We have to 
find, somewhere or other, between the crucifixion and 
the first preaching of the disciples in Jerusalem, some- 
thing that utterly changed the character of that group 
of men. Something happened, so tremendous and vital, 
that it changed not only the character of the movement 
and the men—but with them the whole history of the 
world. The evidence for the resurrection is not so 
much what we read in the Gospels as what we find in 
the rest of the New Testament—the new life of the 
disciples. They are a new group. When it came to 
the cross, His cross, they ran away. A few weeks 
later we find them rejoicing to be beaten, imprisoned 
and put to death (Acts 5:41). What had happened? 


2 John Ellerton. 


Se ee re Se ee eee 


ee 


a 


— 


CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 251 


What we have to explain is a new life—a new life 
of prayer and joy and power, a new indifference to 
death, in a new relation to God. That is one outcome 
of the cross and of what followed. . . . If the story 
stopped with the cross, God remains unexplained, and 
the story ends in unrelieved tragedy. But it does not 
end in tragedy; it ends—if we can use the word as yet 
—in joy and faith and victory; and these—how should 
we have seen them but for the cross? They are bound 
up with His choice of the cross and His triumph 
over it all, Death is not what it was—‘the last line of 
all, as Horace says. Life and immortality have been 
brought to light (II Tim. 2:10). ... All this new 
life, this new joy, this new victory over death and | 
sin is attached to the living and victorious Son of God. 
The task of Paul and the others is, as Dr. Cairns says, 
‘rethinking everything in the terms of the resurrection.’ 
It is the new factor in the problem of God—the new 
factor which alters everything that relates to God. 
That is saying a great deal, but when we look at Chris- 
tian history, is it saying too much?” ® 

The resurrection required the cross, in a true sense. 
And the cross was the necessary choice of Jesus because 
only by that way could He prove to men His love for 
them, interpret God to them, and effect their reconcilia- 
tion with the Father. So the resurrection power entered 
into the new life. This imparts an entirely new quality 
to life. It gives confidence by going back to the char- 
acter of God, as revealed by Jesus. ‘He is not the 
God of the dead, but of the living’? (Mark 12:27). 
“According to Jesus,” says a recent writer, “God loves 
men with a love beyond all human imagination. He 
has a divine purpose to fulfil in each one of us. This 


3 “The Jesus of History,” p. 178. 


252 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


answers to human needs as no other presentation of the 
divine has ever done. It is difficult to think of God as 
less than personal. The highest form of personality 
known to us is parenthood. Moreover, it affords a 
satisfactory basis for a satisfactory doctrine of immor- 
tality. For if God be the Father of all men, it is an 
inconceivable thing to suppose that in the hour and 
article of death He will fling away those personalities 
that He has created, nurtured and loved. A God such 
as Jesus revealed, a God like Jesus, could not allow 
men to perish. Divine fatherhood, as interpreted by 
Jesus, implies an everlasting relation of all human souls 
to Him. In rejecting immortality, therefore, we are 
rejecting Christ’s revelation of God.” * 

But the world refuses to reject immortality. The 
human heart that was made to feel cannot and will not 
believe that death is the final end and separation, that 
“eternal” on the lips of Jesus is a mere play on words. 
Instead, the soul of humanity in every age has 
responded to the heavenly ideals. “Jerusalem the 
golden, with milk and honey blest,’ has sung itself 
along with the Christmas carols and the Easter jubilees 
into the memories of childhood and age alike, and the 
“Land o’ the Leal” appeals irresistibly. Belief in the 
survival of the “loved, and lost awhile’ and of their 
happiness in the other life cannot be quenched. John 
White Chadwick, in his poem, “Auld Lang ae 
brings that spirit world nearer: 


“It singeth low in every heart, 
We hear it each and all,— 

A song of those who answer not, 
However we may call; 


4A. Gordon James, “Personal Immortality.” 


ae 
— 


‘7 





CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 253 


They throng the silence of the breast, 
We see them as of yore,— 

The kind, the brave, the true, the sweet, 
Who walk with us no more. 


“More homelike seems the vast unknown, 
Since they have entered there; 

To follow them were not so hard, 
Wherever they may fare; 

They cannot be where God is not, 
On any sea or shore; 

Whate’er betides, Thy love abides, 
Our God, for evermore.” 


“Have we Christian folk laid hold of this great and 
mighty gospel of immortality? Have we attained to 
the Christian view of death?’ asks Dr. J. D. Jones. 
“Ts not our sorrow far too unrelieved? Is there not a 
lack among us of that note of joy and triumph that 
goes sounding through the New Testament?” If this 
be true, partly as a result of absorption in present world 
affairs and progress, it is unalleviated loss of joy, 
hope and influence. There is an uplifting power in the 
very thought of the resurrection life. The apostles 
went forth to preach a conquering Gospel, and what did 
they preach? Paul in Athens answers, “Jesus and the 
Resurrection” (Acts 17:18), and that to Epicurean 
and Stoic philosophers. This too was Peter’s theme 
from the beginning (Acts 4:2). It has made martyrs 
and heroes in all lands and eras, and set an angel of 
hope by every grave, saying, “Not here, but risen.” 
If interest or faith in the life hereafter is weak in the 
fold of Christ, where shall the world look for hope or 
comfort? 3 

“Immortality is not so much disbelieved, as un- 
thought of,” is the suggestion of Dr. Coffin. Yet it 


254 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


must be thought of by all rational people, since we are 
“all under sentence, indefinitely reprieved, if you will, 
but with no more than an interval between ourselves 
and the tomb.” Then he points out that Jesus made 
eternal life much more necessary to His followers than 
to the rest of men. “By bringing life to light and 
showing us how infinitely rich it is, He kindled in us 
the passion for the second life, and rendered immortal- 
ity indispensable for Christians.” He put a new inter- 
est in life, made it more abundant and every human 
relation tenderer and richer. It is to love that death 
is intolerable. ‘Christ takes us more completely out of 
ourselves and wraps us up in those to whom we feel 
ourselves bound. Then to tear us from them irrevoca- 
bly—parents, children, husband, wife, lover, beloved, 
friend,—is to leave us of all men most pitiable. Can 
we conceive of God as really loving us, taking us into 
Fis secrets, using us in His purposes, letting us spend 
and be spent in the fulfilment of His will, and then 
putting us to an endless sleep?’ He says Jesus as- 
sures us of the life hereafter because of the character 
of the Father we come to know through Him. When 
He convinces us that the universe is our Father’s 
house, it requires no further argument to assure us of 
its “many mansions.”’ We base our confident expecta- 
tion of eternal life upon what we know of Him and our 
Father. Immortality is not a mere guess nor a fervent 
wish; we have solid and substantial experience of what 
God is from all that He has done for His children 
and ourselves. And experience worketh hope. The 
Easter victory of Jesus is to His followers the vindica~ 
tion of His faith in God, and God’s attestation of Him. 
And of the fact of that victory not only the first disci- 
ples are witnesses, but every man and woman since in 


CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 255 


whose life Christ has been and is a present force. 
Christ is a living factor in our world to-day, and Easter 
triumphs are enacted wherever His Spirit animates the 
lives of men. Men who had experienced Christ’s hold 
upon them through all the divisive circumstances of 
life, had no doubt of His continuing grasp upon them 
through death; they spoke of the Christian dead as 
“the dead in Christ’’—the dead under His transforming 
control. Not death nor life could separate them from 
His love. How the early disciples looked upon death 
is told by Aristides, explaining the Christian faith about 
the year 125 A. D.: “And if any righteous man among 
them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer 
thanks to God; and they escort the body as if he were 
setting out from one place to another near.” ° 

We wish to gather all the evidence we can, from 
every source, that will strengthen our faith in personal 
immortality. We welcome the confirmation that comes 
from the fact that nature reveals the resurrection law in 
the new life of each springtime; from the universal and 
instinctive desire for it in the human heart, and the 
feeling that it must be so. But for the disciple of 
Jesus, who believes in Him and in His words, there 
needs no further assurance. Jesus says He is the resur- 
rection; He has risen from the dead. He says He has 
gone to prepare a place for His own and will receive 
them to be with Him where He is. What more can we 
ask? As to that life beyond the veil we must wait for 
knowledge until heaven’s light breaks upon us. But as 
to the eternal life we may now know, for as we have 
seen in the teaching of Jesus, if spiritually reborn we 
are living it with Him. The physical part must pass 
through death, for that is the universal lot, but spiritual 


5 Condensed from “Some Christian Convictions,” p. 207 ff. 


256 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


death shall never come to the soul that has Jesus abiding 
within it, fulfilling His promise. But if Jesus dwell in 
us, that means for us a life like His own, of love, self- 
giving, joyous service. He desires every disciple to 
have the fullness, the joy, the expanding richness, of the 
new life here, and the unfading promise and power of 
the life hereafter. And shining through whatever 
glooms may gather as the human bark puts out into 
the uncharted sea is the gleam of hope and anticipation 
so prophetically foreseen by Tennyson in “Crossing 
thelpar 
“For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place 
The tide may bear me far, 


I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crossed the bar.” 


Jesus Himself is our sufficient certainty and hope. 
“He whom we are to love and trust,’ says another, 
‘Gs not simply the Teacher who bade us believe in our 
Father, each other, and ourselves. He is our Elder 
Brother, and has gone our way before us. He not 
only brought the light; He carried it into and through 
the darkness. He has been our way, and has found 
bottom for us. If we lose all else, at least we have 
Him.’ Having Him, we have all, for He says, “The 
Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into 
His hand;”’ and with this joins the pledge, ‘He that 
believeth on the Son has everlasting life’ (John 3: 35, 
36). 

So in all our studies we always come back to Jesus. 
The more we learn about Him and from Him the more 
strongly we are drawn to Him, the more securely we 
rest in Him. And the more sharply do we behold His 
figure standing out against the background of human- 


CONCERNING LIFE HEREAFTER 257 


ity, clearly defined in its majesty, unapproached, un- 
approachable, supreme in all that pertains to the higher 
life of man. In our studies we have been brought face 
to face not only with a real human personality that 
draws our love and reverence, but also with a power, 
a radiant mystery behind. In Jesus we have seen the 
heart and the power of God, and His loving purpose 
to bring every child into the Father’s embrace. Never 
was His sway so far-reaching as now; never was the 
number of those whose hearts are centered in Him and 
who find in Him peace and joy so large as to-day. 
Ever widening is the circle of lives that are touched 
and uplifted by the gracious influences that radiate from 
Him. He came to give men abundant life, and gives 
life eternal to all who do not wilfully insulate them- 
selves against His magnetic love. The Gospels are 
true. He is the Life of the world, and the Life is the 
Light of men. His word is sure: the soul that believeth 
in Him shall never die, but find joy in service with 
Him in the life hereafter. 

Among the prayer poems that bring peace and com- 
fort to the spirit in its moments of meditation, the fol- 
lowing by Whittier, singer to the soul, is one with 
which we love to linger: 


“When on my day of life the night is falling, 

And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown, 
I hear far voices out of darkness calling 

My feet to paths unknown, 


“Thou who hast made my home of life so pleasant, 
Leave not its tenant when its walls decay; 

O Love Divine, O Helper ever-present, 
Be Thou my strength and stay! 


258 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


“Be near me when all else is from me drifting; 
Earth, sky, home’s pictures, days of shade and shine, 
And kindly faces to my own uplifting 
The love which answers mine. 


“T have but Thee, my Father! Let Thy spirit 
Be with me then to comfort and uphold; 
No gate of pearl, no branch of palm I merit, 

Nor street of shining gold. 


“Suffice it if—my good and ill unreckoned, 

And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace— 
I find myself by hands familiar beckoned 

Unto my fitting place.” 


o-- 


A CLOSING MESSAGE 


I cANNoT close these Studies without a personal word 
to those who become fellow students in His School. 
It is with a peculiar feeling of affection and hope that 
I send them out. Affection because of what the Stud- 
ies have been to me in my own experience. They were 
begun a quarter of a century ago, when for the first I 
learned, after some years in the ministry, what it was 
to go to the Gospels with the great subjects of life and 
death and destiny about which I was to preach, and find 
out what Jesus had to teach about them. Putting aside 
all preconceived ideas and the theories that had been 
accumulated from human sources, and striving to come 
with open mind and responsive heart to the Great 
Teacher for knowledge and light, I gained from Him a 
new and transforming thought of God, a new estimate 
of the worth of the individual soul in His sight and 
purpose, a new conception of the joy and peace of the 
life which is “hid with Christ in God.” During these 
many months past, while I have been living in the 
atmosphere and companionship of the Teacher and 
His School, carrying on and completing these Studies, 
they have been a constant refreshment to the spirit and 
a quickener of faith. My hope is that they may bring 
something of the same inspiration and joy to all who 
come into contact through them with Jesus, the Teach- 
er, Saviour, Friend and Lord. He has come to His 
rightful place as the one moral and spiritual Teacher 


before whom all others bow. His is the supreme indi- 
259 


260 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


vidual authority, the sovereign voice. His word 1s final 
in all matters which affect the life here or hereafter. 
We find in Him the answer to all our needs. He is the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life. These Studies have 
brought Him so much more closely into my own experi- 
ence, so deepened my belief in Him as God revealing 
Himself in His Son, and so filled the future with the 
radiance of His vision, that I would have others share 
with me the blessings received. After reflecting upon 
His claims, His character, His life, His death on the 
cross, His resurrection and ascension, we are led to see 
in Him “God in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
Himself.” We realize that “we know God only through 
Jesus.” We have been in thought companying with 
“the actual Jesus, whom people met in the road and 
with whom they ate their meals, whom the soldiers 
nailed to the cross, whom His disciples took to wor- 
shipping, and who has, historically, re-created the 
world.” And we have come from this closer contact 
with the conviction, held before but now with a new 
certainty, that flashed upon Thomas and led him to say, 
“My Lord and my God.” 

In a passage of great force and beauty, Dr. Coffin 
expresses the conviction which I would emphasize as 
my own and leave with you: “When through Jesus we 
are in fellowship with His God, Jesus Himself be- 
comes to us the revelation of God. The Deity to whom 
we are led through His faith discloses Himself to us 
in Jesus’ character. What we call Divine, as we wor- 
ship it in One whom we picture in the heavens or in- 
dwelling within us, we discover at our side in Jesus; 
and if we are impelled to speak of the Deity of the 
Father, when we characterize our highest inspirations 
from the unseen, we cannot do less than speak of the 


A CLOSING MESSAGE 261 


Deity of the Son, through whom in the seen these 
same inspirations pass to us. Jesus Himself awakens 
in us a religious response. We instinctively adore Him, 
devote our all to Him, trust Him with a confidence as 
complete as we repose in God. We are either idolaters, 
or Jesus is the unveiling in a human life of the Most 
High; He is to us God manifest in the flesh.” 

That is a noble tribute by Dr. Philip Schaff: “Jesus 
Christ is the most sacred, the most glorious, the most 
certain of all facts. He shines forth with the self- 
evidencing light of the noonday sun. His character and 
claims are confirmed by the sublimest doctrine, the pur- 
est ethics, the mightiest miracles, the grandest spiritual 
kingdom, and are daily and hourly exhibited in the 
virtues and graces of all who yield to the regenerating 
and sanctifying power of His Spirit and example. He 
commands our assent, He wins our affection and adora- 
tion. We cannot look upon Him without spiritual 
benefit. We cannot think of Him without being ele- 
vated above all that is low and mean, and encouraged to 
all that is good and noble. The very hem of His gar- 
ment is healing to the touch. . . . He is the glory of 
the past, the life of the present, the hope of the future. 
We cannot even understand ourselves without Him. 
Christ is the great central Light of history, and at the 
same time the Light of every soul: He alone can solve 
the mystery of our being, and fulfil our intellectual 
desires after truth, our moral aspirations after good- 
ness and holiness, and the longing of our feelings after 
peace and happiness. 

“Not for all the wealth and wisdom of this world 
would I weaken the faith of the humblest Christian im 
his divine Lord and Saviour; but if, by the grace of 
God, I could convert a single skeptic to a childlike faith 


262 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


in. Him who lived and died for me and for all, I 
would feel that I had not lived in vain.” 

Let us join in the resolve of Richard Watson Gilder, 
in (The Passing of: the Christ” : 


“O man of light and lore! 

Do you mean that in our day 

The Christ hath passed away; 

That nothing now is divine 

In the fierce rays that shine 
Through every cranny of thought; 
That Christ as He once was taught 
Shall be the Christ no more? 

That the Hope and Saviour of men 
Shall be seen no more again? 


Ah, no, thou life of the heart, 
Never shalt Thou depart! 

Not till the leaven of God 

Shall lighten each human clod; 

Not till the world shall climb 

To Thy height, serene, sublime, 
Shall the Christ who enters our door 
Pass to return no more.” 


NOTES 


I 


Tue Appendix to Dr. Schaff’s remarkable work on 
“The Person of Christ” contains a number of the most 
striking “Impartial Testimonies to the Character of 
Christ,” from eminent persons who “were either pro- 
fessed unbelievers and skeptics, or at least free from 
dogmatic bias, and can therefore not be suspected of 
partiality.” ‘They prove,” says Dr. Schaff, “that there 
is in the inmost heart of man an instinctive and growing 
reverence and admiration for the spotless purity of 
Christ. . . . It seems to be felt that He is, without 
controversy, the very best Being that ever walked on 
this earth, and that an attack on His character is an 
attack on the honor and dignity of humanity itself. 
The impression of Christ upon the world, far from 
losing ground, is gaining new strength with every stage 
of civilization, and controls even the best thinking of 
His enemies.” The testimonies begin with Pontius 
Pilate, and include the Centurion, Tacitus, Celsus, Spi- 
noza, Rousseau, Napoleon Bonaparte, Goethe, Carlyle, 
Strauss, Theodore Parker, John Stuart Mill, Ernest 
Renan and W. E. H. Lecky, author of the “History of 
European Morals.’”’ The last is one of the most strik- 
ing of all: 


“Tt was reserved for Christianity to present to the world 
an ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen 
centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impas- 

263 


264 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


sioned love, has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, 
nations, temperaments and conditions, has been not only the 
highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its 
practice, and has exercised so deep an influence that it may 
be truly said that the simple record of three short years of 
active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind 
than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhorta- 
tions of moralists. This has indeed been the wellspring of 
ehatever is best and purest in the Christian life. Amid all 
the sins and failings, amid all the priestcraft and persecution 
and fanaticism that have defaced the church, it has pre- 
served, in the character of its Founder, an enduring prin- 
ciple of regeneration. . . . The power of the love of Christ 
has been displayed alike in the most heroic pages of Chris- 
tian martyrdom, in the most pathetic pages of Christian 
resignation, in the tenderest pages of Christian charity.” 


II 


These tributes and this little volume ought to be in 
the hands of every Sunday school teacher. The author 
also advises the reading of “The New Testament, a 
New Translation by James Moffatt; Parallel Edition 
with the Authorized Version,” published by the George 
H. Doran Company. He has used this translation fre- 
quently, whenever, as briefly explained in a footnote, in 
his judgment fresh interest might be awakened or new 
light be thrown upon a familiar verse, whose very fam- 
iliarity becomes an obstacle oftentimes to realization of 
its profound meaning. The author is interested in new 
versions, treating them in the light of commentaries ; 
but he is firm in the conviction that it is a loss and 
injustice that cannot subsequently be repaired if parents 
and teachers fail to put firmly in the memories and 
hearts of the children the great thoughts and truths 
of the Word of God as they are given in the King 
James or Authorized Version, that noblest monument 


NOTES 265 


of the English tongue; that Version which is enshrined 
in the affection of generations of disciples who have 
been led by it into the Way of eternal life; that Version 
which has given us the Twenty-third Psalm, the Four- 
teenth chapter of John’s Gospel, and the Thirteenth of 
First Corinthians, in language never to be equaled or 
supplanted. 


III 


Those who wish to follow up various points raised 
by the words of Jesus in regard to Himself or questions 
of life, are advised to secure Principal A. E. Garvie’s 
“Studies in the Inner Life of Jesus.” It gives the re- 
sults of modern scholarship, with the searching analysis 
and sympathetic spirit of a reverent scholar. The Bible 
teacher will find it especially helpful in explaining dif- 
ficulties and presenting in clear light the transcendent 
figure of our Lord. 


IV 


The author suggests for reading the following books, 
which he has found spiritually stimulating as well as 
informing on the subjects with which they deal, and 
interesting in presentation: 


“The Jesus of History,” T. R. Glover; George H. Doran 
Co. 

“Jesus Christ and the Christian Character,” Francis G. 
Peabody, Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale, 1904; George H. 
Doran Co. 

“The Character of Jesus,” Charles E. Jefferson; Crowell 
Publishing Co. 

“Some Christian Convictions,” Henry Sloane Coffin; Yale 
University Press. 


266 “NEVER MAN SO SPAKE” 


“The Master and the Twelve,” J. G. W. Ward; George H. 
Doran Co. 

“The Ethical Teaching of Jesus,’ Ernest F. Scott; The 
Macmillan Co. 

“The Spirit in the New Testament,’ Ernest F. Scott; 
George H. Doran Co. 

“What Jesus Taught,’ Milton G. Evans; The Judson 
Press, Philadelphia. 

“The Wonders of the Kingdom,” G. R. H. Shafto; George 
H. Doran Co. 

“What Did Jesus Teach?” Frank Pierrepont Graves; The 
Macmillan Co. 

“The Reality of Jesus,’ J. H. Chambers Macaulay; George 
H. Doran Co. 

“The Realism of Jesus,’ J. Alexander Findlay; George H. 
Doran Co. 

“Jesus’ Principles of Living,” C. F. Kent and J. W. Jenks; 
Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Lhe ‘Person of) Christ,” Philip Schatf; new) )editions 
George H. Doran Co. 

“Studies in Mark’s Gospel,” A. T. Robertson; George H. 
Doran Co. 

“The Greater Christ,’ Albert D. Belden; The Judson 
Press. 

“The Meaning of Prayer,’ Harry Emerson Fosdick; As- 
sociation Press, New York. 

“Personal Immortality,’ A. Jordon James; George H. 
Doran Co. 

“The Christian Faith and Eternal Life,” George E. Horr; 
Harvard University Press. 

“Christ in the Poetry of To-day,” Anthology compiled by 
Martha Foote Crow; The Woman’s Press, New York. 

“The World’s Great Religious Poetry,” edited by Caroline 
Miles Hill; The Macmillan Co. 


These are only a few out of a large number of vol- 
umes which might be named, but they are mostly of 
recent date, and have been found useful in these 
Studies. Indebtedness has been duly acknowledged. 


NOTES 267 


V 


Acknowledgments are due to the following pub- 
lishers and holders of copyright, for permission to use 
the quotations and poems noted: 


To The Woman’s Press, for the poem by Mrs. Martha 
Foote Crow, in “Christ in the Poetry of To-day.” 

To Houghton Mifflin Co. for an extract from “The Pass- 
ing of Christ,” in “Complete Poems,” by Richard Watson 
Gilder; and for selections from Whittier’s “Poems.” 

To Little, Brown & Co., for “A Parable of Life,” by Helen 
Hunt Jackson. 

To Miss Julia Thayer and “The Sunday School Times” 
for a.verse from “That Day.” 

Indebtedness is acknowledged to Therese Lindsay for the 
poem, “The Man Christ.” 

To the American Poetry Magazine for an extract from 
the poem, “Sir, We Would See Jesus,” by Mrs. L. A. Miller. 

To the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing So- 
ciety for the hymn, “We Would See Jesus,” by Rev. J. 
Edgar Park, in “Worship and Song.” 


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